Granite Group 2018

I had the great privilege of going on the Granite Group trip this August. The Granite Group was started by Bill Cone and Paul Kratter 15 years ago, with the goal to invite a handful of artists/friends to climb the eastern Sierras and paint for an entire week. And painting was the proprietary goal: they would hire a cook while mules packed their gear up to higher altitudes.
This year we made our way through steep climbs, a bit of bouldering, rain, hail, lightning and winds to our soggy destination of Lake Ediza, a lake surrounded by the towering Minarets, and Mt. Banner and Ritter- locations that were often painted by Edgar Payne.
Once we dried our belongings, downed a warming shot of bourbon, and ate a hot meal, we were back in business, and spent the next 6 days hiking and painting.
It was heavenly. Except for the smoke.
While the fires of Yosemite weren't threateningly close, the winds would blow from west to east, right into the bowl of Ediza. Most of the week was quite smoky, which makes for great atmosphere for watercolorists, but obliterates the high mountain vistas all of us were after.
Still, with the good humor of super-talented artists Carol Marine, Michelle deBraganca, Ernesto Nemesio, and Scott Hammell along with good food we somehow survived. I'm posting a few of my watercolors- small paintings done on watercolor blocks- that I did over the course of the great trip. What an awesome experience!

More paintings in my next post.