Talking Trash With Albert Bierstadt.
Maybe I was just in the mood to get cocky.
Maybe I felt like I needed to get cocky…about something,
I chose painting and I decided to take on Albert Bierstadt at Castle Lake.
The History
Over the last couple of years I have been researching historical landscape paintings of Northern California. The number of paintings of Mt. Shasta in particular is astonishing. It seems like famous and not so famous landscape painters from all over the world have made the journey to Mt. Shasta to try their hand at portraying this giant, many show the mountain viewed from Castle Lake. The list of notable artists who have painted Mt. Shasta from Castle Lake is quite a distinguished list. Thomas Hill, William Keith, and Albert Bierstadt, to name a few. This summer I decided it was time to add my name to that list.
The Challenge
The cool thing about Mt. Shasta is the fact that it looks pretty much the same as it did in 1863 when Bierstadt and company visited the area. One can go to the mountain today and see what they saw. I have been seeing Mt Shasta since I was a little kid and the sight of it has held a place in my consciousness most of my life. As a school kid in Arkansas I knew that there was a white giant standing over northern California that seemed to tower above my imagination. I have painted the mountain several times and have even used the idea of framing the mountain above a lake for a client illustration, drawing from that Castle lake history. It has been a few years since I did a Mt. Shasta painting so I thought I would have another go at it.
The Trip
We left Chico on a hot Wednesday morning on the 4th of July and drove two hours north to Castle Craigs State Park to hike up into the Craigs. I remembered there was a good view of the mountain from that hike and I wanted to share the spot with my girlfriend who I knew would feel a connection to the place. After what felt like hours of hiking I sat down on the edge of a switchback to let her catch up.
The Look
From this high angle I could look across to the mountain. I had a minute or two to myself and sipped on water while I studied it. From this vantage point at around 5,600 feet it stood up to it’s full height. I noticed that the ridge that has always appeared to me as the top leading edge called the Red Banks was now a long run-out line in the middle of the mountain. It ran into to a steep sub-peak to the south and the eastern face with the summit stood up behind it. From the road below I realized one cannot even see the summit. Mt Shasta can be an awkward, long looking peak from the southwest but at this height it’s architecture looked marvelous to me. I watched as cloud shadows moved across its face about midway up. The mountain was so big that more than one shadow was moving across it at a time. It occurred to me that out of all the paintings of this place that I have looked at, few of them have conveyed the feeling of Mt Shasta, and most did not even look like it. I decided right then that I was going to do a Mt. Shasta painting that actually looked and felt like Mt. Shasta.
Feeling It
After a long day of going up we finally got to the top around 4pm. As we sat resting in the Craigs I could taste the cold beer waiting for me at the end of the day. The trip down seemed endless. The next morning we woke up feeling tired and sore from our long trip the previous day.
The 5th was to be the day to go to Castle Lake but we were in no hurry to put our packs on and start going up again. We lingered after a nice breakfast in Dunsmuir, and had a slow day. We finally made it to Castle Lake around 4pm and we did not find what we expected. We figured that we might see a few people at the lake, like anywhere we hike on public lands. As we approached the parking area there where hoards of cars, and people everywhere. It was like some kind of wilderness theme park that drew in the masses and the day after the 4th a lot of the masses were out.
Reality
We parked along the road, grabbed our sketchbooks and started walking up the road towards the lake. We were both kind of thrown off by the crowds of people. We worked our way along the north edge of Castle Lake. It looked nothing like what is depicted in all of those paintings. We finally sat down in a little clearing that opened to the steep face to the west of the lake. It became clear to me that to get a possible view of Mt. Shasta we would have to climb that edge and we were in no mood for that, plus it felt like we had to get in line so we went to work were we were. As we worked on our sketches a loud family with a dog joined us on our work spot, the dog took a crap and the whole crew was pretty rambunctious. I did a quick sketch and stood up to take a few pictures, I slipped on the steep wet slope and banged my camera. We decided that we had had about enough of this place. Anasuya got on her I-phone and found a list of restaurants in the area and we decided that dinner sounded pretty good.
My sketch on the left and Anasuya’s color sketch on the right.
Anasuya did a great sketch and I actually like the drawing I did. It has a “Group of Seven” feel to it but no Mt. Shasta.
I set out to take on the big boys at Castle Lake but I never even got myself into position.
I guess that painting will just have to wait. But I did go to Mt. Shasta, climbed high and had my look. I left the region with a clear idea of the painting that I wanted to do. As for my one-on-one cage match paint-off with Albert Bierstadt… well I have been humbled.
All I can say is “thanks for stopping by Al, this is what Mt. Shasta looks like”.
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