Titanic (Sold)

I painted this piece in the Squamish boulder fields which is recognized by climbers as one of the best climbing areas in the world.
With each plein air painting I do I learn something new and often am left with a new direction afterwards of what to do next. This lead me to the massive boulders situated at the base of the Stawamus Chief Mountain. The rock formations in this area are abundant and diverse and as I continued to create paintings in this area I slowly but surely was more inspired to seek out these massive boulders to in essence paint their ‘portraits’. The week was rainy and their was an unexpected break in the clouds one morning so I decided to go outside and paint. I was the only one there except for a single group of climbers who walked by whom I asked the names of the actual boulders I was painting. That is why I called this one “Titanic” as this was the name it was given, likely by some climber years ago.

This was the second painting I did that morning. I almost went home before I started it but just told myself to “at least start” and if I didn’t finish it that thats okay.I was already nice and ‘keyed in’ with my color because I had already done one painting so once I got into the painting and noticed how nice it was turning out I decided to push through to the end. I’m glad I did, as this is one of my favorite pieces. Just as I finished this piece, the sunlight cut through the tress flooding the area with streams of light creating an entirely different scene than what it was only seconds before. I had enough of the piece finished that I was able to complete it on location. Strangely, even though it was relatively warm, my arms and hands were tensing up and I was having trouble applying my brush strokes because I was sooo cold. I mean, I was standing in the shade of the trees, boulders, and the entire Chief Mountain that casts a shadow until about 1:30 on the afternoon of this day.

Spending some hours in the boulders that morning was such a great experience. The massive boulder formations evoke a kind of deep reflection in a way where you kind of are struck with the history of the area and the deep presence of nature.

I also took home with me about 15 insect bites which left quite an itch….an itch for more boulder paintings!