MT HOOD AT SUNRISE, Pacific Northwest Plein Air Competition, Day 4

Golden Mt. Hood Dawn, 12 x 24 oil

We get up before dawn and drive up toward the mountain.  The sky lightens more and more as we approach a fully ripened wheatfield, crowned with a closeup view.  I paint the mountain quickly, sketching in the snowfields as they emerge from shadow.  While I am wondering what I am going to do with this huge expanse of field across the bottom of the painting, the sun tops the ridge, sending fingers of light across the field. They expand, glow hot for perhaps fifteen minutes, and then the lovely light is gone.