This little 6×8 oil painting represents the first of many I hope to do as little studies for larger studio paintings from the Long Ride North. This is the view of the North Saskatchewan River Valley from a picnic area at the Sakatchewan River Crossing in Brithish Columbia between Banff and Jasper. What impressed me with this scene, as did much of the trip, was the vastness. The rivers were HUGE, many as big as the Mississippi or bigger.

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One of the parts of our Long Ride North this summer that I was particularily looking forward to was painting along the way to document the ride in watercolor in my sketchbook. As it turned out I discovered early on that there was no way I could paint along the way, ride 300 miles a day, set up camp in the evening, blog the trip, back up photos and video from the day, get some sleep and then in the morning break camp, load up and ride. I had to eat in there somewhere as well. Even with the extended daylight, there just weren’t enough hours in the day to do it all. Painting would have to be done in the studio. If I was going to paint along the way, I’d have to do it on another ride when I was by myself and had no time constraints.