Summer Snow Fields - Reference Photograph

About four years ago, I was hiking on the Glacier Creek side of Rocky Mountain National Park when I came across this beautiful scene. As you can see in the reference photograph, there are a lot of trees in the foreground. But as I was coming down the hill, I caught a glimpse through the trees of a small drainage area on the other side—a place partly in shadow where water collected and a small stream worked its way down the mountain. I didn't take a photograph of that particular view, but I remembered it.

When I began the painting, I decided to use that memory along with my imagination to create the lower portion of the scene. That's why the bottom of the finished painting looks quite different from the reference photograph. As artists, we don't have to be tied to everything the camera gives us. We can use memory and imagination as editing tools—changing, adding, or simplifying things when we believe it will make a better painting.

It was a beautiful part of Rocky Mountain National Park, and I'm grateful I happened to take that trail that day. I've never been back to that particular spot, but the memory of it became an important part of this painting.