Yosemite Tunnel View

Back in 2018 I painted a landscape of the famous Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park. I soon framed the painting and displayed it, but I was never fully satisfied with it. This month, I had the framing store swap out that painting for one that celebrates the Chesapeake Bay, which gave me a chance to touch up this painting to higher standards.

Improvements include adding more contrast and color range, fixing the waterfall and mountains on the right, adding a suggested tree line to the foreground of the painting, and cleaning up the sky by adding a subtle gradient and eliminating the excessive sky texture in the original. The end result is a significant improvement - there's more light and texture, better details, and it just feels more lively and real.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Link to original: The Autumn Glade: Yosemite Tunnel View - OLD

From Glacier Point in Winter

This painting was inspired by my trip to Yosemite in 2018. Here, from the Glacier Point overlook, we see the high Sierra mountains in winter, with sunlight gleaming off Half Dome in the distance. Clouds float above, illuminated by the winter sun, the only warmth in this cold and wild landscape. This was an interesting painting since it ended up far more high-contrast and tonal than most of my works, but it's an accurate reflection of the overwhelming contrast between light and shadow on Half Dome most of the time.

Acrylic painting; 14" x 17"

Yosemite Tunnel View - OLD

This is another painting of the stunning landscapes I saw out west early this summer as I toured the national parks of California. The Tunnel View Overlook is one of the most famous overlooks in Yosemite National Park, a classic scene for painters and photographers alike. There is no way to capture the overwhelming scale and beauty of Yosemite, or really any of the mountainous west. All I can do is to try and depict the immense spaces, towering cliffs, and stunning light as I saw them, but to truly understand this place, you must go there yourself and see it.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Ahwahnee Meadow, sunrise

A few years back, while wandering around the internet, I happened to find an amazing webcam in Yosemite National Park. This webcam looks out across Ahwahnee Meadow, towards the mountains and typically provides a clear view of a beautiful region of the park.

One morning, I was fortune enough to visit the webcam during a golden sunrise, with clouds rolling down and through the shadowed mountains and mist in the field. I knew I had to paint this image at some point, and here it is. The foreground trees - large, old conifers of some sort - were added in to give a sense of scale to the meadow through use of an interesting foreground. They also let me get in some dark values to balance out the glowing sky. Enjoy!

"Ahwahnee Meadow at Sunrise"

Acrylic painting, 14" x 17"