I painted this piece last winter while travelling in New Zealand. My dear fried Jessie and I decided to sneak in a quick hut trip to Breast Hill the night before heading off to hike Cascade Saddle, which turned out to be one of the hardest multi-day hikes I’ve ever done. The legs weren’t super thrilled with that decision, but the views were well worth it. I spent the next couple of days working on this little painting in bed/in my tent, due to very full huts and very ferocious sand flies.

There’s something magical about these little plein air paintings for me. The sweat, hunger, constant slathering of sunscreen, thirst, heavy packs, laughter, numb fingers, trail snacks, bug bites and late nights spent finishing paintings by head lamp while everyone else is sleeping makes me so happy. It’s not efficient, easy or a good business plan, but I just adore it. They’re small, imperfect, battered and slightly grimy, but imbibed with an indescribable bit of magic.

This 5x7” original watercolour and pen and ink painting comes float mounted on a white mat and framed in an 8x10” white frame.