Since I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep prior to coming to Yosemite, I decided to sleep in today. During the winter, the sun doesn’t really start hitting the valley in a consistent way until mid morning anyway.
After a late breakfast, I decided to paint a famous turnout called Valley View. With the granite face of El Capitan on the left, Bridalveil Falls on the right, and the Merced flowing at your feet, this is probably one of the most photographed scenes in Yosemite. Although a painting of it may be considered a cliche by some, I wanted to paint it anyway. This time of year, Valley View is always in the shade, so there was a lot of ice and snow still around.
I started in on my 16×20 panel and painted everything down to about the valley floor. By then, my hands a feet were so cold, I decided to finish the painting later. I probably didn’t come as well prepared for the cold as I should, and Scott Burdick later gave me some good tips on keeping warm. Below is my easel at Valley View. I will post the final painting at a later date as soon as I touch it up.
