Road Trips

12"x9" oil on deep wood panel

I had an art residency near the end of September and into October of this year at Whiskeytown National Park in California. I chose to drive and had mapped out many exciting things to see along the way. In the end there were just too many and had to postpone some for the return trip. Fresh inspiration was abounding everywhere!! At the end of each day I was totally exhausted from being so excited and awed by the many wonderous natural sights.

My days at the Park for my residency were extremely full and every day had something new. I did not get to everything I wanted to see in the Park. Now that can happen easy if one is painting all day but I had planned on short painting time and the rest of each day for exploring. The area is so amazing I am considering going back at some point. The weather was a lot warmer than I had expected so there was one day it was too hot to paint so I ended up just exploring all day.

Whiskeytown National Park has 4 waterfalls and I only managed to see two of them. The colors of the trees were an excitement to me being a blue green that did not seem real. Fir trees that had whispy feathery ends and the manzanita trees that have leaves like silver dollars were an especial treat.

I did a one day trip to the nearby Lassen Park. Now that was a full day that saw fumaroles, bubbling mud, steaming ground and boiling pools, waterfalls, geologic attractions and some very grand views from the mountain tops.

On my return trip I did as many of the previously missed things that I could. But more showed up along the way. There were flocks of migrating birds that I just could not pass by without soaking up their beauty. Flocks of pelicans seemingly were smiling, egrets were soaking up the suns energy and many were seen in a herd of black angus cows!! The egret I just painted as shown above was stood on his own and was as if he posed just for me. It was a very good trip indeed.