It’s day 12 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!
Last weekend I went on a backpacking trip to see how far I could make it up Middle Sister. Middle Sister is part of the Three Sisters (North, Middle & South Sister) in the Cascade Range. The Three Sisters are also known as Faith, Hope and Charity, I like those names better.
We got a late start to our trip so we only made it 3 miles out from the trail head. This meant that we had to camp in the part of the Three Sisters Wilderness that was hit by the Pole Creek Fire in 2012. I love fire devastated areas so I was excited to camp among the burned trees. The weirdest part about camping in the burned forest was how quiet it was. There wasn’t much reason for animals to be in our area so it was eerily silent, just the creak of a few swaying trees.
The Pole Creek Fire hit 40 square miles of the Three Sisters Wilderness so during our 19 mile trek out and back to Middle Sister we walked 12 miles through burned forest. I truly love the textures and colors of the burnt forest so I couldn’t resist picking up pieces of burned bark to use in my paintings. The light blue encaustic paint I used with the piece of burned tree branch in this painting reminded me of the light blue of the sky during sunset.
PAINTING DETAILS:
“Wild After Fire I”
6 x 6 inches
encaustic and tree branch on wood panel
Origin: Pole Creek Fire, Three Sisters Wilderness, Oregon
$90
click here to purchase
The paintings I create during the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge will be included in my NATURE CURATED series which captures the essence of place by encapsulating carefully chosen mementos nature has seemingly left behind in a thick bed of pigmented encaustic wax. To create these paintings I explore the ocean shore and forest floor to find the perfect, unique objects (shells, pine cones, driftwood and stones) to embed in a luscious layer of wax. All of these natural objects tells the story of its origin, like the smooth edges on driftwood illustrates the journey it took undulating back and forth against the rough ocean shore. Each three-dimensional fine art painting is unique, signed by me, ready to hang and includes the place of origin.
