50!

Painting in the Saguaro 

On December 28, 2015 I returned to Saguaro National Park and painted in my 50th park. Part of a Christmas family outing, while some hiked on the Hugh Norris Trail, my brother-in-law, Don Seymour, and I photographed and painted the late light slanting into the La Bajada Wash. 

I fell in love with the Sonoran Desert on a biology field study trip to Baja California in November 1973. We camped with the coyotes in the Tucson Mountain County Park bordering Saguaro National Park, visited naturalist writer Joseph Wood Krutch's home (Desert Year, Voice of the Desert, The Forgotten Peninsula) and were introduced to the wonders of the desert at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. I learned that far that from being empty and desolate, the Sonoran is teeming with life - strange and beautiful forms of flora and fauna drenched in unforgettable light. I was deeply touched. 25 years later my family and I moved to Tucson and I have been painting the desert ever since.

Here are two Saguaro National Park paintings from 2009, prequels to the 58 in 58 painting project. 

In the Saguaro, study  8 x 6" oil on panel

The field study became part of a larger painting.

In the Saguaro   36 x 48"   oil on canvas

Looking south through the saguaro forest from the Tucson Mountains. That distinctive blue bump in the distance is Baboquivari, the monumental mountain sacred to the Tohono O'Odham.

 

The wilderness and the idea of wilderness is one of the permanent homes of the human spirit.

-Joseph Wood Krutch 


5% for the National Parks

Painting Denali at Eielson     August 7, 2015     photo: Charlie Palanza

#GivingTuesday is a good day to let you know that at the end of 2016, the 100th anniversary year of the National Parks Service, in gratitude for my experiences in the National Parks and in support of continuing opportunities for everyone to have their own National Park moments, I will be donating 5% of all painting sales from the 58 in 58 painting project to the National Parks Foundation, official charitable partner of the NPS.

To learn about purchasing work and available paintings please contact me : duncan.martin@icloud.com. 

 

Donate directly to the National Park Foundation @ www.nationalparks.org

Other organizations preserving wild lands and supporting the National Parks:

National Parks Conservation Association www.npca.org   The Wilderness Society   wilderness.org

 

Thank you!

Duncan 

 


First and latest

Canyonlands and Lassen Volcanic

 

The first painting of the project 

Morning, Needles, Canyonlands

 

March 18, 2011

 

 

The afternoon before we had hiked into the Needles with friends.

After camping that night in our car, at sunrise, with my wife asleep in the back,

I drove out to find a painting spot. 

I painted the light warming the red rocks. The clouds behind the Needles were violet grey.

Jane woke in time to take a few photos.

 

*see the larger work from this field study in into a large place-1 

 

 

The most recent painting

Sulphur Works, Lassen Volcanic

 

November 12, 2015

 

 

I walked into the park on the road from Kohm Yah-mah-nee Lodge at the South entrance.

The road was closed for the winter, but happily for me, it had been plowed one lane wide for a couple of miles.

I was completely alone until 2pm. No cars and 7 people all day.

Silence, except for hissing and bubbling hot springs and wind in the red pines.

 

At the Sulphur Works, the heat and steam had melted the snow revealing the ochres and siennas of the earth,

a beautiful contrast to the blues and whites of the snow. 

 

*this painting has been added to field studies 2

 

 

 

Alaska!

 

 

From July 31 to August 21, I will be attempting to paint in the eight National Parks in Alaska.

Please refer back to this page for posts from this adventure.