In early May I headed down to the Tetons for a dirtbag painting adventure.  After dropping off new paintings at Legacy Gallery, I painted for three days.  I thought I would enjoy a nice spring trip: snow in the mountains, a few drifts down low, and new spring green.  Well… um… reality:  3-4 feet of snow, ice on the lakes, and a low of 17 degrees!  I’ve never been so cold in May!

I slept at the String Lake parking lot in my van, cooked off of a backpacking stove and painted from dawn till dusk.  The best part was that I had the whole park to myself!  On the first day I watched an otter swim out from beneath the ice and run around.  The following morning a grey jay landed on top of my easel and then hopped right on to my hand.  We looked at each other for about fifteen seconds before it flew off.  I half expected it to start talking, to send me on a quest. Here’s some pics from the trip:

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One problem was that as the day warmed up, I’d start sinking into the snow.  In the above picture I’m standing happily on the crust.  By noon I was sinking to my knees in the snow, and realizing that beneath the snow was thin ice…

There is something so deeply transcendent about entering into such a world and seeing no one, just painting and looking and trying to understand a little more of what we are given.  Here are some of the paintings that I came home with.  They are all in the 8×10- 9×12 range.

Posted by Aaron: June 15th, 2009 and filled under: Field Notes .
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