Where Glaciers Were

Suze Woolf watercolor painting of burned tree in Glacier National Park

Painting Details
Watercolor on torn paper
52 x 13
 
I saw this totem (as wildland firefighters call the carved remains of standing timber) in the 2015 Reynolds Creek fire area on the Siyeh Pass Trail, during my time as Artist-in-Residence in Glacier National Park.

As the climate warms, forest fires are becoming more frequent and catastrophic in the western United States. My deep anxiety with the impacts of climate change on wilderness are emerging in this series. Burned-over areas of forest are riveting. Unfamiliar tree forms are newly exposed. Formerly hidden terrain features become visible. Normal greens, blues and browns are transformed. All the worst fires of the last fifty years have occured in the last five years.

Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about any of my images. All represent original paintings, not reproductions. I have many more paintings than are shown on this site. And, since I frequently work in series, there may be additional views of the subjects shown here.