Mesa Arch Painting

We went to Canyonlands National Park a few years ago and it has been on my list to paint since then. Mesa Arch is the place I’ve had in my to-paint folder from this trip, but I have taken a while to decide how to tackle it. I think as the process for this is different than most of the images I paint, I want to share with you the way I am going about it.

Here you can see the arch and the landscape beyond it in detail. To get this photo I was standing close to see through the arch, and using the panorama setting on my phone to include the arch itself in the image. This causes a fisheye affect to the arch as it’s up close, while keeping the landscape beyond accurate to what is there. The tone of this image is also coming off really warm.

This photo is taken at a bit of an angle to the arch and while it obscures most of what is in the distance, it keeps the foreground very accurate and shows that there is a bump with the arch going over it so you see the full shape of the arch.

This image best shows the landscape through the arch.

This shows the arch in the angle I want to paint it from, but having to back up to this distance it blurs the background and I want to include that in my painting in more detail. It also has the most light reflected off the rock and so has a very light color. I plan to paint with more staurated color than this.

My goal is to paint the arch where I can keep it accurate to it’s shape without distortion and to paint the background in detail to have it framed by the arch. I am painting it on a 24"x8” birch panel in acrylic. This means I am essentially making a composite image where the arch is from photos taken from a distance and the background is taken from standing at the edge of the arch. Here I have gotten the shape of the arch down.

In this progress picture I have started working on the background. It’s important to work the background before the foreground, so the arch is really there as more of a placeholder than anything.

The National Parks are for all of us.

Redwoods 2024

Every year Cory and I have a goal of 100 hikes/year. This year has been hard to keep up with our numbers as life has thrown us some obstacles. We lost both of my remaining grandparents (my dad's parents) to start the year, which meant a trip to Oklahoma. Then I wasn’t feeling totally myself as I had a very large ovarian cyst and needed surgery- but that meant lots of tests over several months before I had the surgery, then time to heal following it. While figuring out what was going on with me we made a month long trip to Missouri and Iowa, for my mom's birthday and Cory’s dad's memorial service. We hiked some on the trip and in Yellowstone and Badlands National Parks, but not as much as we usually do and I wasn’t as up for it anyway with the discomfort I was in.

Now, feeling so much better and really wanting to spend some time outdoors, Cory and I went to the redwoods. It’s such a great place to explore.

Friday: We revisited Trillium Falls Trail and the loop trail at Ladybird Johnson grove. We have hiked these before and enjoyed them so much- this time they were just as wonderful as ever.

Looking up through a hollow tree

Funky fungi

You can just see ocean in the distance- it was more obvious in person.

Saturday: We had a rough start to the day as we had a flat tire when we went to leave our hotel so we had to deal with that first. We walked around Eureka a bit and got lunch at their CO-OP grocery's del while we waited for our car. When we got our car we headed south toward the Humboldt Redwoods State Park- only to find they had not fully aired up our tire! We went back, waited more, had it checked, aired, and left, finally on our way. We hiked the Drury-Chaney Grove this time. We’ve been to the Humboldt Redwoods before, but not this grove and not this trail. It was getting late and the sun had just set when we were done.

Sunday: While driving to find a hike up north and on our way home, we stopped along a beach for a walk. The fog was heavily rolling in but time on the beach is always a good time. We decided to take the scenic drive through Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park along the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. We saw seven male elk resting together and continued on to look for a hike. We ended up stopping at a trail that looked promising and had a great hike through some very large old growth trees. Part of the hike followed a stream and that was beautiful also. We took a few different trails for the hike so I’m not completely sure it has its own name. We started near the Goose Pen tree.

Halloween Project!

Ever since last year's Halloween quilt (and matching pillows) I’ve had leftover fabric in my stash that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with. I thought maybe a table runner, but I had awkward amounts left. After talking to a friend I decided a tote bag. That would use up most of my scraps and some leftovers from other projects, plus the inside would be lined with what I had a lot of- the Jack-o-lanterns! I didn’t want another year to pass with Halloween material haunting me!

I’d text my sister feeling like I should get on to another project when she sent me a link to the free pattern for this skull block by Bonjour Quilts. I got to it and made the whole tote in a day- a VERY long day.

The quilt whose leftovers I was using:

Bonneville Dam

A trip to the fish ladder at the Bonneville Dam is always worth the time. If you aren’t familiar with the idea of a fish ladder, it’s the way fish pass through dams to continue their journey up river.

The Bonneville Dam is the last dam on the Columbia River before the ocean and is an Army Corp’s of Engineers site. They have people who are fish counters that count how many fish and of what type are passing through each day. They also have large windows that are open to the public for viewing along with information about what fish are being seen, when to see different kinds of fish, historical and current counts. There is a small museum about the area when you walk into the visitor's center and some floors below a movie you can watch about lamprey and their importance to local tribes. The fish windows are what drives myself and my family to visit and I would recommend anyone go if they have the chance.

My dad for scale, ha!

After the fish window, I recommend driving to the fish hatchery and watching the enormous sturgeon swimming around. They are like living fossils and are native to our river!

This was my parents’ second trip to the dam and on their request. So I’d say they recommend you go too!