Saturday, June 9, 2007

10,000 Ft Grove


For a larger image, click on picture.


After painting some real dogs as of late, it was a pleasant surprise to get one that I like.

This is a scene painted from a photo that I took on my honeymoon a couple of years ago. My bride and I drove up to Shuman's grove to take a hike through the trees that rewrote time. Scientist finally had an accurate organic sample that was 10,000 years old to calibrate radio carbon dating equipment. On the east side of the White Mountains hiking back to car, I stumbled across this little scene. The trees and shrubbery were out of this world. I felt like I was on another planet. The pinon trees and creosote bushes were like none I had ever scene before. The park ranger said that the most amazing thing to her was the fact that creosote bushes at this elevation could live as long as 10,000 years. Everyone comes to see the bristlecones and overlooks the oldest living specimens in the grove.

I have no idea what kind of trees these are in this little grove. They had the darkest colored bark I have ever seen on a tree. I don't know if this due to the difficult slow growing nature of the plants at 10,000 ft above sea level or not. All I know is that I liked the contrast they provided against the distant mountains. This was taken in late October and I wonder if the maustard green foliage was caused by frost.

This is the first bank of clouds I have been happy with in a long time.

Thanks for looking.

6 comments:

Stefan Nuetzel said...

Hi Les, I like the simple color scheme with the blue and the ochre / green families. Some of the edges are maybe to sharp, which costs some atmosphere. You give the trees character and personality.

Robin Weiss said...

Les, you nailed this one. The painting works togeather nicely as a whole. I like the distant mountains and the brushwork on the foliage. Good job on suggested detail.

Shes a good un!

Mike said...

Les, you certainly have the feel of this subject! Man!! If only I could do what you do. This piece makes me feel like I am waaay up high on some outcropping. Great work!

Killer stuff!
Mike

les lull said...

Thanks Stefan. I got a little carried away with the hard edges on this one. I wanted to keep them fairly sharp to overstate the contrast of this piece.

les lull said...

Thanks Robin. It is nice to get one that all the pieces work instead of a couple of nice areas.

les lull said...

Thanks Mike. Keep stroking away and you will get there Mike. Appreciate the kind words.