Sierra Spring Thaw

This is a studio painting done from a number of sketches and plein air studies done through the years in Hope Valley approximately 50 miles south of Meyers near Lake Tahoe, CA. It shows the effects of an early spring thaw at about the 8000' elevation in the Sierra Nevada mountains south of Lake Tahoe. This was the first of a number of Studio paintings I did from smaller plein air studies depicting a January snow melt due to much warmer weather then the usual cold and wet Januarys in the Sierras!