Seward, AK
One thing I didn’t think about when coming to Alaska was about how much boats are a part of life here. In Seward there is a lot of fishing going on (we got to eat freshly caught halibut on our campfire grill tonight, amazing!) and so there are boats in all shapes, sizes and colors here.In the morning we went to visit Exit Glacier where we hiked right up to the bottom of the glacier to experience it in it’s enormity.After hiking down we decided to paint a view of it from Resurrection river. The view was stunning, the composition complicated, but as I began to paint the snow covered mountains, I felt that mayhem would ensue! Painting snow covered mountains could really make someone want to pull their (my) hair out, trying to understand the shape of the mountain and following the countours of the snow and land. I didn’t let mayhem ensue though, I just squinted hard through the whole painting and really enjoyed it by the end.In the afternoon I got my group to drop me off by a run down looking ship yard, I couldn’t just let it go by. I had to go and paint there, so I did.It was hard knowing that I only had a few hours and not weeks here, so I chose a boat and set up. The best thing about seeing boats on land is you get to really experience their full shape and how enormous they are out of the water. I loved being able to see their undersides and having to crane my neck to take in all of the cables, pulley and wires: it was truly invigorating and so new and exciting.Tomorrow morning we’ll be moving on to the other side of the peninsula to Homer. I hope we’ll get lucky and have another sunny day.The next time I have internet I’ll post some pictures of paintings. So far I’ve really just wanted to share a few slices of the Alaska I’ve been able to see.