The Family Photo Project

Heaven’s Peak - From the Family Photo Project - Oil on Canvas 5’ x 6’ 2026

Heavens Peak in Glacier National Park

I was reached out to by an old friend from Washington. She sent me a message with a family photo attached from 1978 of her, her father and brother in Glacier National Park, asking if I would be able to create a painting based off the photo. She gave me no requirements or preferences, besides only having the landscape with no people and the size of the painting. Which works perfectly because painting people is not my strong suit. She wanted a large piece to go above her mantle in her living room. It was such an honor to be able to create this for her, especially because the painting holds so much memories for her and her family.

I started the process of creating the piece while I was in my final semester of college, in the midst of creating the Summits Collection for the BFA Thesis Show, with another commission I was completing on the side, along with working part time at a local restaurant. To say I was busy is an understatement. I would come to this painting whenever I had spare time. This painting was created over a span of 6 months. I worked in layers, first mapping out the composition, then laying down base colors, and then starting on the bulk.

Detail of the painting

Due to the length of creating the painting, I was able to see how the colors changed as the paint dried. This gave me the ability to perfect the painting.

Many times when painting with oils, you don’t fully know what it will look like when dried. I found that the sky brightened to a lighter blue, rather than a warmer muted tone and the mountains became more saturated as well. Being able to see how the colors shifted, I was able to choose the correct tones for the rock wall and green hillside to complement the background. I chose to keep the shadows of the figures in the painting to serve as a physical memory of the people during that time of her life.

The Original Photograph, 1978

This was the most difficult painting I have done yet. There was a lot of struggle with color theory. I wanted to try to capture that warm, vintage, aged look of the photograph while still maintaining a high quality of detail and vibrancy from what it would have looked like standing there in person. I only used the photo given to me as my reference photo. Everything completed was done completely freehanded with a lot of trial and errors.

Overall I am beyond happy with how the painting turned out. It was so amazing to see it in their home above the mantle.