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| "Bugaboo Spires, Purcell Mountain Range" BC |
Probably the most challenging "Hand Painted Tin" that I have yet to attempt. Originally photographed on medium format film, from a helicopter, thru a small window located at hip level, it was one of those "Hail Mary"shots. I just came across this negative while gathering new material for my new website, now in production, and fell in love with this long lost image.
Painting it will be a labor of love!
I'll be experimenting with acrylic Tar Gel and Iron Oxide mediums, and possibly try out my new jar of Black Perl Mica.
At 20x20 finished size, the details in the crevasses of the granite towers will be a striking interactive/tactile experience to the touch!
My goal is to submit three Hand Painted Tins of the Bugaboo Spires to the Whyte Museum's call to artists. Wish me luck, its been a very long standing dream of mine to be represented by any gallery, let alone the world renowned historical Whyte Museum of The Rockies in Banff.
I invite you to read some interesting facts of the Bugaboos!
In 1969, Bugaboo Glacier Provincial Park and the Bugaboo Alpine Recreation Area
were set
aside to preserve and protect this outstanding
area of the Purcells. In 1972, the Alpine Club of Canada erected
a three story quonset building for climbers. The Conrad Kain Hut
was named after renowned alpinist who made many first ascents during
the early 1900’s in the Purcell and Rocky Mountains. In 1995,
the park and part of the surrounding recreation area were combined
to create the Bugaboo Provincial Park.
Over time the erosive forces of mountain weather and glacial ice removed much of the weaker overlying rock revealing granite masses and sculpting them into the spectacular spires that characterize the Bugaboo region. The heavy snowfall of the "Columbia Wet Belt" continues to create the vast glaciers that dominate and shape the rugged Purcell Mountains.
The steep V-shaped valleys of the Purcells challenged early explorers, miners, loggers and climbers from Europe and North America. News of the spectacular spires of the Bugaboos were a magnet for some of North America’s most renowned mountaineers. Harmon, Longstaff, A.O. Wheeler and the legendary guide Conrad Kain visited the Bugaboo region in 1910. Kain returned with the MacCarthys in 1916 and climbed the North Howser "Tower" and the south ridge of Bugaboo Spire, which he considered his most difficult Canadian ascent. Thorington mapped the area and then climbed with Kain in 1933 on Crescent Spire. In 1938 and 1939 the Northpost, Eastpost and Brenta Spires were ascended by easy routes. Snowpatch, beyond the techniques used in Kain’s era, was climbed by its southeast ridge in 1940 by Arnold and Bedayn. By the 1950s climbers such as Fred Beckey, Ed Cooper and Layton Kor put up the first "face" routes on Snowpatch, Bugaboo and Pigeon Spires. Chouinard traversed the Howsers in 1965 and Chris Jones pioneered on their 600-metre ascent of West Face in 1970.
Today those early routes, first done with many pitons and bolts, are often repeated by "free climbers" who use only the less damaging aluminium chocks for protection against falls. Free-climbing techniques enable faster ascents, resulting in reduced exposure to the frequent lightning storms; modern climbers have continually opened new lines of ascent in an area where the elements of glaciers, firm rock, significant altitude and violent weather all combine to create world-class mountaineering challenges.
Over time the erosive forces of mountain weather and glacial ice removed much of the weaker overlying rock revealing granite masses and sculpting them into the spectacular spires that characterize the Bugaboo region. The heavy snowfall of the "Columbia Wet Belt" continues to create the vast glaciers that dominate and shape the rugged Purcell Mountains.
The steep V-shaped valleys of the Purcells challenged early explorers, miners, loggers and climbers from Europe and North America. News of the spectacular spires of the Bugaboos were a magnet for some of North America’s most renowned mountaineers. Harmon, Longstaff, A.O. Wheeler and the legendary guide Conrad Kain visited the Bugaboo region in 1910. Kain returned with the MacCarthys in 1916 and climbed the North Howser "Tower" and the south ridge of Bugaboo Spire, which he considered his most difficult Canadian ascent. Thorington mapped the area and then climbed with Kain in 1933 on Crescent Spire. In 1938 and 1939 the Northpost, Eastpost and Brenta Spires were ascended by easy routes. Snowpatch, beyond the techniques used in Kain’s era, was climbed by its southeast ridge in 1940 by Arnold and Bedayn. By the 1950s climbers such as Fred Beckey, Ed Cooper and Layton Kor put up the first "face" routes on Snowpatch, Bugaboo and Pigeon Spires. Chouinard traversed the Howsers in 1965 and Chris Jones pioneered on their 600-metre ascent of West Face in 1970.
Today those early routes, first done with many pitons and bolts, are often repeated by "free climbers" who use only the less damaging aluminium chocks for protection against falls. Free-climbing techniques enable faster ascents, resulting in reduced exposure to the frequent lightning storms; modern climbers have continually opened new lines of ascent in an area where the elements of glaciers, firm rock, significant altitude and violent weather all combine to create world-class mountaineering challenges.
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