Dreaming of sunny skies, laying on a blanket on the beach with a good book, and the cathartic sound of the ocean lapping against the shore.
On our drive from Durango to Aspen, Colorado, as we rounded the last switchback near the summit north of Durango, we were greeted by these brilliant orange aspen trees and awestruck by their rare, unusual coloring. With the sun shining intensely, the contrast between the vibrant tangerine foliage, the cobalt blue sky, and the pristine white snow was absolutely breathtaking.
My husband and I absolutely love the scenery in Colorado, so we planned our trip to see the aspens turning color in September, and that just happened to coincide with their earliest snowfall on record! In order to capture both the beautiful foliage and the snow before it melted we hiked as quickly as we could up the mountain, and were rewarded with a gorgeous view. I chose this vantage because I liked how the aspen trees perfectly framed the mill and stream in the distance. Then, the sun emerged and made everything sparkle. The colors came alive and dramatic cool shadows were cast in the snow, and I just had to create the scene in paint.
Growing up in the midwest, I loved the first snowfall of the year when everything would get a beautiful dusting of pristine white powder, including even the tiniest of branches in the treetops above. If you caught that moment early enough in the morning before anything had disturbed the intricate frosted web, it was just magical. I wanted to capture that brief beautiful moment in “Climbing Trees” when the sunlight dances through the icing on the treetops and you can feel yourself looking up in wonderment just like you did when you were a kid. Using extremely thick oil paint and palette knives allowed me to recreate the various textures of the birches and ice-encrusted branches.
