What’s it like to photograph the Pacific Crest Trail

kevin gleesonThe Santa Barbara, California-based painter and former high school art teacher has been hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this summer. Every day, Gleason, who is 50, finds a new spot on the iconic 2,650-mile trail hold on to his paintbrush. he told Outside About her process of painting the path, and what she learned from the various sites along the way.

The other day was my wedding anniversary, and I started the day thinking about which picture my wife would most like to see. She is my backpacking friend but I am doing this trip alone. I saw two columbine flowers sitting next to each other and painted them. No, it was not some spectacular mountain pass or lake view. But I knew this was what she would want to see, and I put a little more intention into painting this scene.

The work I’ve done painting a picture every day along the Pacific Crest Trail has given me a truly unique experience as I travel from Mexico to Canada. Sometimes when you’re hiking, you get too focused on the destination. People on the Pacific Crest Trail want to cross to Canada, so they know they have to reach a daily goal of 25 miles in 106 days of hiking. This allows pedestrians to see the tunnel. I need to reach the next resupply. I have to go to the next city.

My project has shifted these goals. I spend my day thinking about where I would stop and sit for a while and really take in the view. There’s something about sitting down and painting for two hours that gives you a completely different appreciation for hiking. You see how the topography and landscape change, and how the colors change. A scene may be imprinted in your memory.

Every day, I hike between 20 and 25 miles, and I try to capture a scene along the way. The other night I was sleeping under the stars, and when I woke up I saw the sunrise and painted it. Other days, what I paint is the last scene I see before I go to bed. Most days, I choose a scenario that happens somewhere in between.

I’m intentionally trying to find a variety of ideas. If I painted a forest yesterday, today I might focus on a bay. I will go to a mountain pass tomorrow. I want the paintings to look different, because the way the scar looks is constantly changing.

I sit cross-legged and use a piece of corrugated plastic as a desktop. I clip my sketchbook in it, and then I take out my folding palette, paints, a few cups of water, and my five brushes.

If I wasn’t doing art, my backpack would be very light. My painting supplies probably add up to about four pounds. I have my paints, brushes and a sketchbook with 54 pages.

Painting affects my replenishment. My wife sent me boxes of food the other day and I asked her to put some more titanium white paint in the boxes. Since I’m painting with gouache, which is a water-based paint made from natural dyes, I use a lot of white because it makes the other colors look lighter. I also used a lot of ultramarine blue. The other colors have been constant since I left Mexico in the spring.

I also carry an umbrella with me for shade, because the gouache watercolors I use dry very quickly. So I zip-tie my umbrella to one of my hiking poles and then stand it up like a beach umbrella.

It usually takes me about two hours to paint each picture, but honestly, I don’t lose track of time when I’m painting. I become completely engrossed. A painting is nothing more than a group of shapes and colors together on a page. I spend my time appreciating the colors and shapes in nature and then trying to recreate them on the page.

During this process I’ve learned that I can’t capture everything in one scene. I focus on one thing about the landscape that is really wonderful, and I make that the focus of the painting.

Each painting is on 9 by 12 inch paper and I make a 6 by 8 inch rectangle to frame them. I’m taking pictures with me in sketchbooks, and I plan to send each book home with my wife when they’re filled.

When other hikers saw me painting, they were extremely cooperative. They would come over to look at pictures, or stop me at the next campsite and ask if they could check out the finished landscape. One man said, “You’ve got to paint real fast in there.” That’s how I got my trail name.

They call me Quickdraw.

As told to Friedrich Dreyer.