Created Dec 2008

24 x 1

Panther Peak

“Karen, wake up, it is time to go. Wake up Nathanial and lets go take pictures.” I had just awoken from my afternoon nap and I could see that the evening sun was getting low in the western sky in Big Bend National Park. Soon, and for only about twenty or thirty minutes, the shadows of the mountains will give them shape and character. The warm yellow light will also enhance the colors of the scenes that I seek to use for doing landscape paintings.

Karen, my daughter, and her son, Nathaniel, and I were in Big Bend National Park last May for a week. We found the park in a severe drought. According to the park rangers, they had not had any rain since June of the previous year. The plants were drying up and turning brown. The wildlife were stressed and beginning to lose weight. We saw a lot of Black Bears since they were working harder to search for food. Karen, in one close encounter with a large bear, for the first time in her life was faced with a primordial “Fight or Flight” decision. She chose flight.

The park rangers had to close part of the camping area since a cougar there was inviting itself to dinner at some of the camp sites. For some reason, the cougar wanting to also sit at the table for dinner was spooking some of the campers.

After getting everybody up and getting the cameras ready we left our cabin and drove out of the Basin and up through Panther Pass to the hair pin turns on the down slope on the other side of the pass. The mountains there on the east side of the road were resplendent in the late afternoon sun light. We found a place to stop and got out to take pictures.

One of my shots was of Panther Peak from which I did this oil painting. I hope you like it.