Painting wild places...

I don't do this often, but every once in a while I will take a painting, usually one that has been exhibited and has been hanging on my wall, and I take it out of the frame and work on it some more. I can't help but think other artists may do this too, although I have never asked. Our skills are constantly improving, our style and aesthetics always evolving. I don't frame and exhibit it a painting unless I think it's done - yet I always keep looking at them.

This was a special painting of a special place. St Regis Mountain, located in the northern Adirondack Region of New York, was the first mountain I ever hiked, probably around 1987. It had an old dilapidated fire tower on the summit, now restored. The open summit was bare and rocky, which provided nearly a 360 degree  panoramic view. Looking towards the east, the massive profile of Whiteface Mountain, one of the Adirondack High Peaks (over 4000 ft in elevation), dominates the horizon. 

However, I didn't paint it in 1987 - I took photos. I've hiked it almost every year and always take photos. In 1996 I did my first plein air painting on the summit, doing a small watercolor. I've also hauled my oil painting gear up the mountain on a couple other occasions, but the 6+ mile round trip, to the 2874 elevation summit is getting to be a challenge.

I used photos from a spring 2015 hike to do the first version of this painting in 2015. (See below). The sky was full of turbulent clouds and the deciduous trees in the landscape beyond had not yet leafed out. I did the original painting being very faithful to the photos of that day.

My paintings, for the most part, are like souvenirs - a remembrance of how things were that specific time and place. I was pleased with how this painting turned out and I exhibited it several times, although the size limited where it could be shown. I could barely fit it in the back of my car. It hung on the wall of my living room and I looked at it every day. Was it the best painting I could do?  What was more important to me - portraying all the details of that day, or producing an outstanding painting? 

I decided, in February 2021, to focus on the painting. I referenced my 100's of photos taken on the mountain summit and decided to make it a clear, blue sky day and carefully studied the shoreline contours of Upper St Regis Lake to make sure I captured things accurately. I greyed the distant landscape more to help show the atmospheric perspective. I studied the photos of the scraggly evergreens trying to survive on the mountain top and paid more attention to the late afternoon light. The color of the bare rock in the foreground was not changed and is due to the differences in the natural lighting on the day I took the photos.

I also added an Idem to the painting, since upon zooming in on some of my photos, I discovered one had been in the view. You'll have to do some homework to figure out what I'm talking about.

Did I make it a better painting? I think so. I made the various parts - the sky, the mountains in the distance, the landscape below, the trees, and the rocks fit together more harmoniously. I took some of the best features from several photos and combined them into a single image. I actually did not rely totally on the photos and let my intuition guide my decisions on shapes and colors and details to focus on.

I don't do this with every painting, only the few that call out to me, that urge me to reconsider whether or not they could be better. I hope you'll agree my revisit to this one was worth it.