Picnic at Hanging Rock and Summer Mountain Days

When I think of doing art in the summertime its always the mountains first, and I always like to have a Victorian vibe to my excursions. I want it to feel like I’m on a Victorian expedition, complete with my Victorian sketching supplies, a picnic, and hot tea!

Beautiful mountain colors on a Mountain Boomer lizard.

Coming home after our trip to Colorado I realized how different our mountains were. In Colorado the mountains are so huge they make their own wind, rain, clouds, and temps. They are cold! Its in the 70s and 80s in the summer. Our mountains are small and don’t do any of those things- but they do hold and reflect the heat. It gets so hot in the Wichita Mountains that hiking trails close at 10 am! By then it is already 100 F in the summer!

When I first started this blog I went camping a lot with my family, especially with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop. By the time my daughter was old enough to drive my body could not handle camping anymore because of Lupus. I didn’t know what was wrong then, but I do now. These days I cannot physically camp overnight anymore, but I can and do day-camp when my health allows it. Taking day trips to the mountains is a wonderful way to do that!

Beautiful view of Elk Mountain, Treasure Lake is right in the middle in a canyon.

If you turn the other direction from Elk Mountain you can see this beautiful boulder formation.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Out at the Hanging Rock the long violet shadows were tracing their million-year-old pattern of summer evenings across it’s secret face.

-Joan Lindsay

My favorite summer movie with all the creepy, hot weather vibes is Picnic at Hanging Rock and I realize it’s because the Australian Outback setting reminds me so much of our mountains! They are sooo hot and a lot of the colors of the landscapes are very similar too. That movie is a whole mood and it matches my mountains!

The soundtrack to “Picnic” is also the soundtrack to my trips. The haunting pan flute and organ, the bright, stilting piano melodies- they all speak mountains to me. Here’s a great youtube playlist!

Planning

When I plan my sketching trips I try to do the following:

I try to wear camping dresses- its as close as I’m going to get to Victorian-wear. Camping dresses are cool and comfortable and feminine. I pack my sketching supplies that are as Victorian as possible- I want to feel transported to a different age. Its easy to imagine this as the mountains surround you and their ancient craggy faces make you feel that the modern era is far, far away. I make lists of everything I need to pack and often illustrate them for fun. I try really hard to pack everything the night before. This really helps!

I like to take my Winsor & Newton wood watercolor box, filled with Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith tubes, a china slant palette, and my finest brushes. I like to pretend I’m rich! Lol I’m really not, but I will splurge on art supplies. I also take a smaller metal palette for convenience!

Luscious Victorian-adjacent art supplies! This Winsor & Newton Westminster box was available in the 90’s. I was lucky to find an empty one on E-Bay and I’ve been slowly filling it!

The little black enamel box in the front is from Whiskey Painters. The original Winsor & Newton bijou box is unaffordable!

Art in the Wild

I don’t really know why, but making art in the mountains is just magical for me. Being in nature is so peaceful, and being among the shadowy crags of these ancient mountains seems like I have traveled quite easily to another time. I also feel that my soul is very close to God among his creation. It is a very healing experience. Painting the landscape helps me to study it, appreciate it in a deeper way and remember it. Trying to color-match the mountains and plant-life is challenging and very satisfying.

I just adore the colors of the granite and the different lichens growing on it! Learning to mix these is so fun. The pink granite is Alizarin Crimson and Yellow Ochre, mixed together in various degrees, throw a little Buff Titanium in as well for different values. The darker patches are Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber. The lichens are Lemon Yellow, Cobalt Turquoise Light and a mix of the two.

Color studies in my sketchbook, including the beautiful granite above!

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. -Psalms 19:1

Palette colors top row half pans: W&N Cobalt Green, DS Buff Titanium, W&N Sap Green, DS Fuchsite Genuine. Left, full pans from top down: W&N Cobalt Turquoise Light, Cerulean, Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber. Right, full pans from top down: W&N Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Red, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson. There is a blob of white gouache on the left mixing tray.

Picnic Tea

I love to pack an afternoon tea picnic. I carefully wrap my china in tea towels, make a carafe of hot tea (in the summer the fire danger is high, so no Girl Scout campfires!), make and buy some sweets and pastries. This is such a great treat after hiking and painting and well worth the trouble beforehand! The china and a tablecloth to cover the surface makes it seem so old-fashioned and elevates it to a much better experience. We often had hot tea while camping and this ritual brings all the joy of doing that right back.