Not Quite a Painting a Day by Steven Thor Johanneson: Pinnacles Buttes

Saturday, September 23, 2017

On to the Tetons ... sort of.

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Saturday, September 9, 2017 to Friday, September 15, 2017; to the Tetons ... sort of.

C1640

“Morning Light … Grand Teton Tops lost in Cloud”

(Wyoming)

Oil Painting on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

4” x 6”

Click here to make this your Own

Saturday: After photo-recon near the boat landing, I finally left Brooks Lake, taking the road past the Brooks Lake Lodge, on what turned out to be a relatively desperate road about five or six miles to Wind River Lake and US Hwy 26/287. I did not need 4-wheel drive, but a high clearance vehicle is a necessity, and in wet weather the mud to the west of Barbers Point, the highest point on the road, could be a killer, sending one sliding off into the valley below. I found this out from a chap who works at the lodge, who had driven a couple of guests to fish at Wind River Lake. I was surprised when arriving at the end of the road that there was no sign warning RVs and Winnebagos not to attempt it, as it is single track for much of the way. Wind River Lake is a small lake, really a large pond, by Minnesota standards, and is considered by some to be the headwaters of the Wind River. It is also just a few hundred yards from the crest of Togwotee Pass.

View from Barbers Point back the way I came … that’s the good section.

Two Ocean Mountain in the distance … still on the desperate road to Wind River Lake.

High Mountain Meadow.

Could be Moose country.

Back side of Sublette Peak and Wind River Lake.

Sunbreak on Brooks Mountain.

There was a Bald Eagle at the lake, and I wondered whether it was the same one I’d seen at Brooks Lake, which was not at all far as the ~~Crow~~ Eagle flies. There is a good view here of the far side of Sublette Peak from that which I’d been looking at for ten days; also of the south end of Brooks Mountain.

On the desperate road I met Doug, a hiker, doing part of the Continental Divide Trail, but who was heading home to Idaho for a few days of rest and recuperation, as he had encountered some foot problems during the past few days on the trail. I would like to have given him a ride towards Jackson Hole, but my truck is full to the brim … my bed area has a lot of stuff on it during the day, especially when driving, that gets moved at night. The passenger seat has 7 gallons of water in strapped into it, and in the foot well I have my deep cycle AGM battery, as well as another 3 gallons of water in 9 stainless steel flasks, and on top of that is a small backpack with my essential painting and drawing kit. Hope you got a lift all the way to Jackson, Doug. As it was I was only going another 20 miles down the highway, before turning off onto Forest Road 30168 (also known as Flagstaff Road), ending up at a site above Sagebrush Flat, about seven miles in. Here I have a view of the cluster of peaks around the Grand Teton, 23 miles distant; Mount Moran is out of sight to the right, blocked by the slope of the hill I am camped on.

Mountain Man Country.

The old Blackrock Ranger Station.

Interior.

Mary’s Lake on the way to my next campsite
above Sagebrush Flat.

Mount Leidy from my campsite … Sagebrush Flat is below me
between here & there and out of view. I’m about 7 miles south
of the Blackrock Ranger Station.

Sagebrush.

Sagebrush Blossoms.

First Evening

Aspens beginning to turn.

Tetons on my second Evening …
the Grand Teton is the tallest Peak seen.

For you tech-heads the pigments used were:

Imprimatura: W&N Venetian Red

Drawing: W&N Ultramarine Deep

Painting: W&N Venetian Red, Cobalt & Ultramarine Deep Blues, also a touch of Cerulean, Cadmiums Orange & Yellow Pale.

Rublev:Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Purple Ochre & Lead White #1.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Looking at the Great Divide.

Saturday, September 2 to Wednesday, September 5, 2017; to Brooks Lake, Absaroka Range, Wyoming.

C1639

“Moonset at Dawn”

(Brooks Mountain, Absaroka Range, Wyoming)

Oil Sketch on Centurian oil primed Linen Panel

4” x 6”

Click here to make this your Own

Saturday: Over across the lake from my dispersed campsite is Sublette Peak and Brooks Mountain [I met Brooks Lake Lodge local who set me straight on the name], which mark the Continental Divide, and at present I am on the eastern side of it, so the streams here will be flowing to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve been bouncing back and forth over the divide since crossing Independence Pass the day after leaving Salida. I crossed from the Atlantic to Pacific flowing waters there, and back again when I crossed over South Pass, at the south end of the Wind River Range, and back to the west side a day later when I crossed over Union Pass before the Eclipse. An interesting aside here is that in the Union Pass area waters flow in three directions; east to the Mississippi and the Atlantic, south to the Green River, which joins the Colorado and eventually into the Gulf of California (which separates Baja from the rest of Mexico), and northwest into the Snake River, which joins the Columbia and the Pacific, between Oregon and Washington. On Tuesday I recrossed Union Pass to the east side, to Dubois, and am still on that side here at Brooks Lake, looking at the Divide in the form of Brooks Mountain, and watching the shadow of the Pinnacles Buttes slowly crawling down its face in the dawn light.

View from my 2^nd Brooks Lake Camp at the north end of the lake.

Flowers in my Camp.

Afternoon light …
I believe this is part of the Pinnacles,
but this mountain is separated
from the main body by a Valley.

Evening.

Morning Shadows.

Monday, Labor Day: Extreme smoke haze from the forest fires way up near Glacier National Park in northern Montana, so much so that you could not tell the Sun had risen by the usual shadow descending the cliffs across the lake, and those cliffs themselves were almost lost in the haze, although only two miles, or so, away. The lake surface itself was calm until about noon, after which a breeze blew up for the rest of the day, but that had no effect on the haze. In the evening twilight, the usually bright planet Jupiter could hardly be seen, and in fact I had to find it with binoculars before I could make it out with the naked eye. By the time it lowered into the notch between Sublette Peak and Brooks Mountain, it could only be made out with binoculars, before it passed behind the latter … now that is haze! However, it made for a beautiful warm, reddish-gold full moon … gosh! Two weeks since the eclipse already!!

Wednesday: A light ground frost this morning, and still a bit of smoke haze, as was yesterday, although nowhere near as much as on Labor Day. Jupiter was easily seen last night and the Moon was its usual silvery self by the time rose high enough for it to have crested the Pinnacles and tall trees behind my campsite.