Yellowstone Moran was a really exciting book for me to create. My parents are wildlife photographers and I grew up spending long hours sitting still in wildlife blinds, waiting for animals to show up. It was often cold, bum-numbing, and with mosquitoes so thick it could drive a person mad. We had to sit very quietly while we watched. Not having a camera myself, I often carried a sketchbook and wrote and drew about the animals we saw.
As I grew older I dreamed of being an artist explorer, like Thomas Moran, exploring the wilderness and painting it. Eventually I became a landscape painter, toting a French easel and a backpack full of canvases as I traveled to places to paint. The experiences made me respect what Moran had set out to do with his art even more- preserve the natural beauty of the land by painting it and convincing others it should be protected. I knew I wanted to write his story, how he played a vital role in the creation of our first national park.
Creating the art for this book was a challenge. How to capture spouting geysers, huge landscapes, and men and horses climbing over fallen timber. I had never painted horses before this book. But I found a rancher kind enough to take me out on horseback so we could explore land Moran had traveled. Both the rancher and my husband, Dave posed as models in the book.
My favorite part creating the illustrations for the book was capturing the natural beauty of the land. I drew form the experience I had as a landscape painter. Though I now use watercolors instead of oils, the principles are the same, and it was a joy to pull out the field easel again and paint on location throughout the Yellowstone.
Here are a few of the paintings I did before I created children’s books, when when my focus as an artist was to paint on location. I often combined my painting travels with trips to Europe to study art in museums. The experiences I gained painting from life, on location were vital to my creating this book.
Brittany, France
Venice
Thanksgiving in New Hampshire
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Your watercolours are very good