A Welcome Sight At Hermit's Peak Fire

Painting of Hermit's Peak Fire: My goal, with this composition, was to capture an evocative image that brings home the tragedy of loss from this fire. This includes the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and Montezuma Castle in the golden triangle of the painting foreground. The castle was originally built as a Santa Fe Railroad hotel, operated by Fred Harvey, and had diverse visitors during that time from Theodore Roosevelt to Billy The Kid. Today it is home to the United World College, and students were evacuated in early May. The historic City of Las Vegas is home to New Mexico Highlands University with Hermits Peak, for which the fire is named, as a background. Using aerial perspective, I worked to reflect the depth of the Sangre’s with the smoke plume prominently impacting mountain forests. I hope that the fire bomber winging past the setting moon, from Nedret Gurler’s photo, will cause the viewer to catch their breath just a bit, as they consider the dramatic impact this fire has had on the community. This plane would indeed be a welcome relief, as the water it drops will help to contain the fire. The painting was done in oil on an 18 x 24 Masterpiece Linen Hardboard Canvas. . The painting was done partly en plain air, but since the fire was only 50% contained at that time, I also relied on Plein Air Color Studies completed in the past, and lastly I inserted an image of a fire plane in front of the Full Moon from a reference photograph taken by Nedret Gurler of Santa Fe.