Painting in Grand Teton National Park is one of my great joys every summer and fall. The color is gone now and I’ll need to wait til the spring, well probably more like the summer, before I get out and paint again in the park.
This was a fun day, I made a lunch and a snack and drove north from our house into Grand Teton National Park. My head was swiveling back and forth looking for a place to paint, and of course for animals crossing the road!
I spotted this pretty grove of trees with fall color and the mountains in the background. And the other requirement, a place to park, presented itself. There was a wide gravel road heading off the highway so I had a good safe place to set up to paint.
I haven’t done a lot of plein air painting this summer/fall so I grabbed a 6″ x 8″ panel. A few years ago I had worked up to painting 12″ x 16″ canvases, but this time I decided to go small. I felt I had a better chance of a successful painting with a smaller painting!
After a couple of hours I was ready to go. I packed up the car, drove the 100 feet to the 2 lane highway, and noticed quite a few cars had pulled over and parked. This usually means there is wildlife nearby. And sure enough, I looked over to my left and there was a large bison (they’re all large) walking right towards where I had been painting 5 minutes earlier! That would have been a surprise, and not a good one, had this guy come walking past me.
I did of course have my bear spray right next to my painting supplies. My favorite way to paint is to set up under the lift-back of my car, I lay out all my art supplies right there in the “trunk” of my car, and I even have shade provided by the lift-back. Maybe next time I need to keep bear spray on me, wildlife comes out of nowhere really fast.
Below is my view of the fall color in Grand Teton National Park. No wonder I pulled over to paint this!
This was a great painting day. After this I drove north and did a couple more small quick studies, then I was ready to head home. I didn’t see any more wildlife that day! Painting in Grand Teton National Park certainly has given me a lot of wonderful memories, and paintings, this year!