Painting Hetch Hetchy
First a little background: Hetch Hetchy is a reservoir in Yosemite National Park that provides water and power to all of San Fransisco BUT in the early 1900s conversationists tried to stop it from being built because it would destroy the land and also there were alternatives. Political powers won. Many native people that lived in this land were displaced and the valley destroyed. Today there are conservation efforts to “Restore Hetch Hetchy” including engineering plans that could generate the same power, slowly bring back the natural habitat AND would create a second Valley that could help reduce the tourism impact on it’s popular sister Yosemite Valley. I thought this was an incredibly interesting idea and debate.
Before and After the dam reservoir.
Couple of years ago, I was on a solo camping/painting trip to Tulomene Medows and I was listening to a video about the area. I learned about the controversy of this resevoir and I immediately had the idea to do this imagined plein air. I thought it would be a cool challenge to try to do plein air as if the valley was already restored! But, it was too far for my solo itinerary at the time.
This year everything finally aligned!
I forgot my palette though… so I had to resort to using this pamphlet I got from an art gallery on the way up.
I used the red glasses to help me see value!
This is my biggest plein air to date and under 4 hours. Then it fell face first in sand 3 times. But I’m still so happy I did this! .
