New Paintings - National Park Series

I was fortunate enough to once again have a week-long artist residency at Willowtail Springs Nature Preserve and Education Center. I started a new series of paintings of National Parks, and I painted 19 paintings during my stay (whew!)

Why the National Parks? I've always had a love of the outdoors. My husband and I enjoy hiking and exploring our area in southwest Colorado and the Four Corners. For the past 2-3 years that's what I've been painting, deciding one day to paint mountains and another day to paint a sunset. But when I found out that I was going to have another residency, I knew that I wanted to do something with the National Parks. We're lucky in that we live by a large concentration of the Parks, but this year we branched out and explored 4 new ones - Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion (all in nearby Utah), and Acadia (which was a bit of a leap away). There are currently 63 National Parks, and we've visited 20 of them. I thought about doing a painting of each one that we've visited, but then decided that I wanted to delve a little deeper into each Park, so I chose the 4 new ones from this year.

I couldn't be happier with the results! The Utah parks have a lot in common but are all so very special in their own rite. And it was so refreshing to paint the ocean - I didn't realize that I haven't before and I just loved it! (there will definitely be more to come).

I've been reading up a lot about the history of the Parks, and I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples who lived there before the white man "discovered" them. I do agree that the National Parks are "America's Best Idea", but they're also a part of our shame, and I think that's something people should remember when visiting and honor the People who lived there.

The Parks are a place to go where you can lose yourself in the land, the beauty, the animals, the solitude (if you're lucky enough to find it these days!) I really enjoyed painting this series (and am looking forward to painting more of the Parks) because with each painting I lost myself in it, remembering the sounds, the smells, the temperature, all of the thoughts that I was thinking while I experienced this painting.

I'll spend the next few posts delving deeper into each series, but for now you can see them here. Original paintings, prints, note cards, and more are for sale on my website as well.

Thanks for reading and joining me on this journey!