Wildflowers
Each of these pieces, as the titles suggest, are collections of plants from particular wild places. They are all painted from photographs, with the exception of some of the elements of In and around The Pinnacles, for which I had living specimens from the Oakland Museum's wildflower show Where have all the flowers gone? in April of 2008.
The three-mile section of trail from the Albion Basin campground to the top of Catherine Pass was bedecked with the flowers in Catherine Pass; Wasatch Mountains, UT, over a two-day period in early August of 2007. I spent those days wandering up and down the trail with my camera, and worked on the piece (and its companions, still in progress) for several subsequent years.
All the flowers in The White Pine Range, NV were photographed at the lower elevations of a hike to Mt. Duckwater, one day in June 2013. There was a lush natural garden at around 6000'. Higher up were bristlecone pines and an array of tiny wildflowers that will have to find their way into another painting.
Day in the Desert is based on a several different trips to Death Valley, and the surrounding area, many years apart, beginning with the superbloom of 2005.