A Well-Watered Year, adventurous plein air painting

Cascades of the Middle Fork Feather River, Lucinda Wood, Watercolor
Cascades of the Middle Fork Feather River, Lucinda Wood, Watercolor

My husband and I hiked an hour and a half and waded a rushing creek to arrive at this beautiful spot. I found an out cropping of rock to perch on and paint next to this cascade.

Lucinda Wood painting Cascades of the Middle Fork Feather River. Photo by Dave Wood
Lucinda Wood painting Cascades of the Middle Fork Feather River. Photo by Dave Wood

Wildlife encounters always spice up my day when I’m out painting. Here, I looked up from painting to see a handsome gopher snake, soaking wet, drying off about three feet from my foot, having apparently come down the falls. Once he warmed up enough he slid back into the river and ran the rest of the cascade! A Whitewater snake! Happily, I have never been uncomfortable around snakes.

Grizzly Creek Falls, Lucinda Wood, Watercolor
Grizzly Creek Falls, Lucinda Wood, Watercolor

A flash of white through the forest seen on a drive led me to this waterfall. After some bushwhacking and rock climbing into a narrow gorge, I perched on the rock below to paint.

Lucinda Wood painting Grizzly Creek Falls, photo by Dave Wood
Lucinda Wood painting Grizzly Creek Falls, photo by Dave Wood

A merganser cavorted below the falls I was painting, then rode the rapids down stream, shot off the lower falls and hit the pool running, on water!

Merganser below Grizzly Creek Falls, photo by Lucinda Wood
Merganser below Grizzly Creek Falls, photo by Lucinda Wood
Hourglass Falls, Lucinda Wood, Watercolor
Hourglass Falls, Lucinda Wood, Watercolor

This waterfall I found by ear. I heard rushing water in an unexpected place and followed the sound. Thanks to the record snow and rainfall we had this year, this gorge had a boisterous waterfall instead of its usual trickle!

Hourglass Falls in progress, photo by Lucinda Wood
Hourglass Falls in progress, photo by Lucinda Wood

These paintings and 17 more of my new watercolors which feature the bountiful snow and water we were blessed with this year, are on display for November. Join us for the opening reception of my show, A Well-Watered Year, this Friday, Nov 3, 5-7pm!

Painting with Grizzlies

In Katmai National Park, Alaska

Here I am painting Mount Katolinat in Alaska. Photo by Tom Johnson
Here I am painting Mount Katolinat in Alaska. Photo by Tom Johnson

In late August I joined my husband on an eight-day fishing trip to Katmai National Park in Alaska. He fished, I painted! If you are going to paint outside in Alaska, the first thing you need is a body guard. I had not arranged for one, but the boat captain from Naknek River Camp where we stayed, who was told he could just drop me off on a certain island to paint, insisted on staying and guarding me. I am so glad he did. There were 15 grizzlies fishing behind me that day while I painted! One was close enough that I could hear him chomping on fish! The reason I was not facing them was because that area was fogged in when we arrived. When I finished my morning painting I turned around and painted facing the bears. A mother bear arrived with four cubs! The cubs played on the shore like puppies while their Mom stood in deep water catching and eating salmon.

"Margot Creek, Momma Bear with Four Cubs, Alaska" by Lucinda Wood, Watercolor
“Margot Creek, Momma Bear with Four Cubs, Alaska” by Lucinda Wood, Watercolor

 Occasionally I heard what sounded like boulders plunging through water. I’d look up from painting to see Momma bear charging through chest-deep water with remarkable speed toward her cubs. She had spotted an approaching male grizzly. They will kill cubs to bring the mother into heat sooner. Mother bear herded her cubs into the woods to hide. Later they would return. Just think of all this Momma bear had to watch for: peering through the water for salmon to catch, keeping an eye on her four cubs on the beach while watching for male grizzlies which could come from any direction. She was heroic! She was also the leanest grizzly I saw on this trip.

Tom facing off with a grizzly. Photo by Lucinda Wood
Tom facing off with a grizzly. Photo by Lucinda Wood

Most of the grizzlies were solely interested in catching and eating salmon. However, the second day I painted on this gravel-bar-island I heard an explosion of seagulls from the beach. I glanced up to see a grizzly approaching the island. Tom Johnson, my guard, stood firm, booming “No!”, pointing his whole arm to the right. The grizzly shook his head, and kept coming. A rock flew. It did not faze him. He reached the island beach. Another rock zinged. The bear dodged this way and that, trying to avoid my stalwart guard. Finally, the bear galloped off in a huff along another sand bar, plunged into a pool, caught a salmon and ate. Seagulls settled; the paint flowed. All was well.

“Fishing the Headwaters of Brooks River, Alaska” by Lucinda Wood, Watercolor

My closest bear encounter happened along the shore of Brooks Lake. I was painting on a slim sandy beach where the Brooks River flows out of the lake. Across the river, a grizzly walked right into the scene I was painting! (I left a space for him and painted the bear at home from my photo, since he didn’t pose quite long enough.) Occasionally, Tom would see other bears walking towards us on the lakeshore. When they got too close Tom would tap his metal water bottle, making it ring, and the bears would disappear into the woods. I carried on painting. One adolescent went back and forth three times, curious. Tom did something to discourage him. Then, way up the beach, an enormous bear approached us. Tom thought he weighed 1000 pounds. Every time Tom looked up the bear was much closer than he expected him to be. He seemed to be ambling along, but his stride was long. When he got too close, Tom rang his bottle, the bear melted into the woods, and so did Tom. A few minutes later Tom reappeared, smiling with relief, and said “He’s past”.

It was soon time to go. I had to work on a pretty tight schedule, since the boat captain was my guard. I knew you didn’t tell a group of fishermen to stop fishing and return to the boat at 3 and keep the boat captain away. But that, and the fickle weather, made me much more spontaneous in my painting. I dashed off the waves in the foreground, packed my gear and we started back. We couldn’t follow the beach back to the trailhead because the wind had stiffened and waves covered the beach, so we followed the little bear trail through the woods. I asked Tom “Was this the trail the bears took when they left the beach?” “Yes” Tom said. “What was that, ten feet behind me?” “Maybe nine” he replied. “A 1000 pound bear was nine feet from me?” Yikes! “I never heard him!” “They can walk very quietly in the woods.” Tom said. I let that sink in for a while as we hiked. Then it hit me. I asked Tom “Where were you?” He looked surprised and said “You don’t think I’d let a 1000-pound bear get within nine feet of you without standing between you!” “So, you were standing about 5 feet from a 1000-pound bear!” “Yep.” And probably he was standing there when every other bear passed behind me that day, about eight trips, bear spray at the ready.

I painted seven plein air paintings that week. Most of them would not have been possible without the courage of Tom Johnson. I am so grateful for his vigilance. And I thank God for protecting Tom! I also thank God for the weather we had. It had rained at Naknek River Camp for most of two months prior. They had had 1 ½ sunny days in the last two months. But I had only one completely rainy day there, during which I picked and painted this brilliant fireweed, indoors.

“Fireweed in Fall” by Lucinda Wood, Watercolor

The other days I was able to go out and enjoy and paint all that wild beauty! It was a feast for my soul! I think I love wild splendor so much because it makes me feel closer to the One who made it. It fills me with awe and wonder, and makes me thankful! I hope it has that effect on you, and that you catch some of that in my work.

“Mount Katolinat” I painted this while Tom kept bears of the island we were on.

At Brooks Falls, where grizzlies do their best to catch leaping salmon, there are two viewing platforms, the upper, which is quite close to the action, and quite crowded, and the lower, which shows you the whole falls. The lower platform was nearly empty, so I was able to paint from it, and the bears hold pretty still while they wait for salmon, so I could paint them in place. Over the distant roar of the falls I could sometimes hear the rumbling growls of bears having a tiff under the platform.

"Brooks Falls with Five Bears" By Lucinda Wood, Watercolor
“Brooks Falls with Five Bears” By Lucinda Wood, Watercolor

Believe it or not, I met a woman and her little daughter at my opening reception in Quincy, CA, who saw me painting the above watercolor! Yarrow and her husband, Danny, are fishing guides in Alaska. She brought guests to the lower viewing platform the day I was there! What a small world!

All 8 of my Alaska watercolors are on display for October, 2022, at Main Street Artists Gallery, in Quincy, CA, as well as local landscapes and paintings from Montana. Come see, if you’re in Quincy!