Next stop on Painting the National Parks – Lassen Volcanic. Located in northeastern California, Lassen Volcanic is home to steaming fumaroles, ambling meadows erupting with wildflowers, crystal mountain lakes and numerous volcanoes.
Volcanic sites like Mt. St. Helens and Yellowstone National Park have always fascinated me. As a person of faith, I see it as a natural display of how even the most volatile situations an yield a resilient beauty. The geology behind parks like Lassen and Yellowstone dare us to wonder and to also recognize our human limits. Nature is a dangerous beauty – wild and to be explored, but carefully.
Lassen is on my bucket list. I hope to schedule a two week California National Parks trip once COVID has calmed a bit (Omicron go away!)
NPS has a fantastic website so you can ‘virtually’ visit Lassen safely at home. Click here to explore more about Lassen
I studied many photographs of Lassen and while I would like to paint the steamy fumaroles in the future, I wanted to focus on the picturesque Manzanita Lake on the edge of sunset.
This painting was all about layering and building out soft colors to reflect the bold sunlight and the soft reflection on the water.
I love painting mountains because the scenery is ever changing. Depending on the weather and time of day you have a completely different masterpiece of natural art. I love playing with colors and mountains have a depth and mystery that the artist in me loves to explore.
Prior to COVID-19, my mom and I were planning an action-packed 10 day trip to Yosemite and Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks. June 2020…it was our dream trip and unfortunately with the pandemic we had to cancel. Losing out on the trip is not a huge loss, given the burden COVID has caused. One thing that helped me during the pandemic has been painting and connecting with other painters virtually during lockdowns and social distancing.
Even if COVID has upset past and present travel plans, ART has a healing power and we are blessed to have the ability to watch live videos of scenic nature (YouTube has hours of scenic videos of our National Parks – enabling the homebound to enjoy the scenery from afar).
I still have my stack of Yosemite guidebooks on my shelf and hope to make the trip in 2023. The reservations are so crazy now to get in the park – we are looking to visit South Dakota this year.
While I am valleys and mountains apart from Yosemite and California’s National Parks, I can imagine myself in the wilderness, in the shadows of Sequoias and vast mountain valleys and vistas.
I’m still painting my way through California’s parks, but wanted to share my progress so far….
The tunnel view vista of the Yosemite Valley is one of the most iconic images in America. Photographers and painters from Ansel Adams to Albert Bierstadt have tried to translate the natural beauty of Yosemite into art. God’s artistry in nature is unrivaled and yet scenes from Yosemite dare us to dream and art can help us to connect with nature and creation.
Painting my version of the Yosemite Valley took four hours. The natural scenery is so sweeping you need time to scale the elements. The perspective in painting the Tunnel View is difficult.
My goal in this impression was not extreme detail, but to ensure I matched the values of the scene from from reference photo. I sought to add hints of browns and lighter tones in the rock to represent the lighter values in the reference photo.
Overall I’m satisfied with the painting and will have it on my Etsy page soon.
Yosemite, like Yellowstone (Grand Canyon of Yellowstone) is a place I will continue to paint time and again. Each day and each season offers new inspiration. I hope you enjoy this painting.
King’s Canyon is known as a mini-Yosemite – it is vast and beautiful with jagged peaks and the gorge of a chiseled canyon. In searching for a reference photo, I noticed the clear blue water of King’s Canyon’s back country lakes. I wanted this to be a reflection of the park.
I focused on building layers of light grey and browns for the peaks – with a dusting of snow (Titanium White and Iridescent White + Phlatho Light Blue). The lake was an emerald clear green so I used lighter blues and greens to create this scene.
I have always dreamed of visiting Channel Islands National Park – which is a ferry ride off the coast of Southern California.
I took my inspiration from this image of Cathedral Cove
My painting is meant to be an impression and not at detailed as the reference photo -but I wanted to work on the values of the island stone and deep impenetrable blue of the ocean.
Adele Lassiter Creative 