About this Painting

This is the view from Long Rifle Lodge, on the Glenn Highway 102 miles northeast of Anchorage. Matanuska Glacier, which streams in a mighty arc for more than twenty miles in the Chugach Mountains, is upstream, just to the left of this view. This side of the river below us, at 1,700 ft. altitude, you can see airplanes parked on the Glacier Park airstrip. From here, they look like tiny toys. Along the river, some of the willows and birch are just changing into fall yellow. We're standing at 2,000 ft. altitude. The highest point on that mountain peak across from us is five miles away from us, at altitude 5,800 feet. This is a place of volume and big space.

All of the work on this painting was done from life, on location. I worked at this location for about three weeks. For a brief time during the final week, the low, late afternoon sun brightened the peaks and ridges as you see here, and I worked rapidly to get this dramatic light. In the distance on the left is a patch of glowing, cold white ice of another glacier.

For detail views, click here