Tag: Olympic National Park

Makeshift. Backpacking With Watercolors.

Do you remember the scene in Wild where Reese Witherspoon can’t stand up under the weight of her pack? Every backpacker knows that weight is everything. Every ounce you add to your pack is an additional strain on your legs and back as you hike, which makes what should be an amazing, beautiful experience painfully agonizing.

Mr. F & I splurged on a brand new pack for me and decided at the last minute to take a quick overnighter along the Elwha River Trail in Olympic National Park.

It was so last minute, I didn’t have a tiny sketchbook to carry with me and I wanted to be able to do some watercolors when we had downtime. So industrious artsy that I am, I decided to create a makeshift watercolor kit for backpacking.

First task– create a sketchbook. The Mr.’s job recruiter recently came to visit & brought us some branded goodies– among them a few pocket journals, which just happened to be the perfect size for backpacking (remember, size matters! ha!). I ripped out the lined journal paper, then cut a few pieces of Canson Mixed Media paper to size, securing them inside with a heavy rubber band, recycled from grocery-bought veggie bundles (I always keep some on hand, they come in so handy!)

It worked perfectly– and as an added bonus, it is lighter than a moleskin would be and the pages will be easily removable as I fill them– so it will continue to lighten the more I hike & paint!

Onto the paint itself. I already had a super light weight flower-shaped watercolor palette with a lightweight cover. So I filled the wells with my favorite tube colors and let them dry out before packing them up. I zipped the palette up in a ziploc, to protect all my other things just in case there was any paint leakage.

A small, inexpensive brush is sufficient for tiny quick sketches. I hacked off about an inch from the end so that it would fit easily in a quart-sized ziploc with my sketchbook without bending the bristles. That ziploc was then placed inside the freezer-sized ziploc with my palette and a small plastic water cup. I also bring along a folded paper towel for blotting. Viva brand towels work best– light and super absorbent, so I can do lots of blotting and cleaning up without soaking the towel through.

Everything worked like a charm! I may eventually switch out the palette for something more secure, perhaps with a larger mixing area (I like this option, the thumb hole would make it much easier to hold onto), but for now, it does the trick. We’re hoping to do another overnighter this weekend along the Sol Duc River, follow me on Instagram for photos!

Here’s a clip of me getting ready for a backpacking adventure.. 🙂

May 31, 2017
Finding Latitude. The Olympics.

When lamenting my delay in beginning to paint seriously again, an artist friend told me– you needed time to fill up. Looking back on the experiences of the last five years, I realized how very right she was. Florida has its own beauties and is inspirational in its own right, but it wasn’t until we began traveling the Northwest that something long buried was awakened in me.

My first job in the art and design world post-college was as a photo researcher for a stock image licensing company. I worked in the editorial department, selecting images for publishers of books and magazines. I distinctly remember being especially enthralled by images from the Northwest, specifically Olympic National Park. I was particularly taken with the images from the Hoh Rainforest— a rainforest? In the US? I knew I wanted to see it.

We’ve been lucky enough to live a close distance to the Olympics twice now, the first time being our very first travel gig. We made our way to ONP as much as we could during those first thirteen weeks, we hiked and backpacked, taken in by the cool, lush, fern covered forests, turquoise Hoh River, and towering Olympic Mountains.

I had my first from-the-trail bear sighting in the Olympics. The feeling there is of a primeval wilderness, something out of another time. Driving into the park, you lose cell service and don’t miss it. You are transported to a different century.

Not being a “major” national park, there is a peace and a sense of quiet in the Olympics that can be hard to find in the more popular parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone. What you hear is only the rush of a waterfall, the rustle of the wind through the forest, your breath as your climb.

The Olympics continue to inspire and inform my work, the lushness and sense of quiet, its coolness and mystery.

favorite trail | Staircase Trail
There may be more dramatic and challenging hikes in ONP but this one holds a special place in my heart. We took to this hike on a sprinkly Fall morning and after a hectic summer in Seattle, the quiet and peace we found was exactly what was needed. The trail leads past enormous felled cedars, fern covered forest floors, rocky riverbeds.

don’t forget your | Layers and rain gear
The weather in ONP can be variable and unpredictable, temperatures range depending on the area of the park and elevation. The Hoh Rainforest gets an average of 144″ of rain per year, so definitely make sure you have your rain gear when venturing into the Hoh.

what i love most | What the water brings
The wet atmosphere of the Olympics provides the ideal conditions for a lush, incredibly green forest. The ferns and mosses make my heart happy, especially when sunlight streams through amidst the misty rain.

Have you been to Olympic National Park? What was your impression? Favorite area? I’m always on the lookout for tips because I never know when we’ll be back on the Olympic Peninsula!

To see more images of the places that have inspired the LATITUDE show and series, follow the #findinglatitude hashtag on Instagram!

All images by me.

January 21, 2016
The Artsy Nature. Jennifer JL Jones + Olympic National Park

Whenever Mr. F and I are away from the coastal Northwest for a long period of time, I find that what I miss most is the mossy trees and fern covered forest floors. These “Muppet trees”, as I like to call them, inhabit the moist woods in the Pacific Northwest and in this edition of The Artsy Nature, after spying Saline. Lumi. Breath., a gorgeous new painting by Jennifer JL Jones, I was immediately transported back to one of the loveliest spots in the Northwest.

photo | staircase hike, olympic national park, wa

art | saline. lumi. breath.( detail ) by jennifer jl jones, mixed media on wood, 72×72

On a foggy, cool morning in the early Fall of last year ( before the government shutdown closed access to the National Parks ), Mr. F and I began a short little jaunt into Olympic National Park that would be one of our favorite hikes of 2013. Not strenuous, no giant, sweeping views of snowcapped mountains, just the quiet hushed lushness of the temperate rainforest. Clouded skies cast a purplish light into the woods, only the dripping of the dew from the leaves and the fall of our feet on the mossy floor to be heard. If big mountains are outdoor cathedrals, woods like these are tiny chapels. Cozy and unassuming, you are left to ponder not on the grandeur of creation, but on its ever closeness.

More of Jennifer JL Jones‘ work can be seen on her website and, if you’re in the Atlanta area, she opens a solo show, SECRETsaline, at Alan Avery Contemporary Art this Thursday!

See more forays into The Artsy Nature here and check out my guest Artsy Nature feature on artist Jessica Zoob‘s blog!

Photo by Artsy Forager, art source linked above.

August 19, 2014
This Artsy Life: Weekend 37 [ The Rains Come, Fall Begins ]

I know it’s not officially Fall yet, but this weekend it finally began to feel as if it is on its way! the Pacific Northwest has had an utterly gorgeous, yes, but uncharacteristically warm and long summer. And as a Florida girl who moved to the Northwest hoping to never experience 90+ degrees again, I am more than ready to welcome my favorite season!

When we were in this area two years ago, we loved being so close to Olympic National Park, but since we were closer to the coast then, we explored more along the West side of the park, never making into the Hood Canal side. It was a cloudy and foggy morning, but that just added to the beauty of our Saturday hike. The Olympics, to me, feel the most “Northwest” of all the parks in these states. You get a little taste of everything– big mountains, crystal clear streams, giant ferns and moss covered trees.

This little hike was so beautiful, I felt like I was grinning the entire time. While the long, arduous hikes usually reward us with panoramic views, sometimes these quiet woodsy hikes are just as nice. It’s on these traipsing-through-the-woods hikes that we really talk and connect and check in with each other. ( I’m usually too out of breath on the more strenuous hikes to do much chatting! )

At one point, we sat quietly on a felled tree along the riverbank, just soaking in the smells and sounds so different from what we’d been experiencing recently. We agreed that although we both felt some sadness that Seattle didn’t work out for us, our decision was right. We need quiet. We crave peace and wildness and beauty. And while you certainly catch more glimpses of such in Seattle than perhaps other cities, we knew we would long for more than glimpses.

We talked about how much we loved the landscape in this region– this perfect mix of mountains and rainforest, how much good stuff is such an easy distance away– a short drive and we’re at the Pacific, in Seattle, in Oregon wine country, in Portland, at Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, even the drier, more desert-y Eastern Washington, if the rain ever gets to be too much. We reflected on how funny it would be if we were to end up settling in the first Northwest place we came to together. We’re still not sure what the future holds, but the Olympic Peninsula is still on our list of possibilities. 😉

The rain held off and gave us a perfect day on Saturday, while Sunday was a more typically Northwest Fall-ish sort of day. Quiet, sporadic drizzly rain made for the perfect day for a day at home, Mr. F in the kitchen and I on my laptop catching up on blogs and watching a lovely, autumnal movie.

We have so much to look forward to, so many trips to take and plans to make and dreams to nurture. In many ways, it feels like this Fall is a new beginning. I can’t wait to see what else is in store!

How was your weekend, Artsies? Did you enjoy fine weather? Dream and make plans? If you’d like to see more from This Artsy Life, follow me on Instagram.

First three images by Artsy Forager, last image foundhere.

September 16, 2013