Golden Light in the North Cascades

I spent last weekend with a group of painters at the North Cascades Institute's Environmental Learning Center. On Friday we stayed on campus, close by Diablo Lake and painted in the forest near Deer Creek enjoying the autumn light created by the angled sunshine and the golden vine maples.   Then on Saturday NCI drove us up to Washington Pass and a lovely painting site just below the Early Winters Spires. Though the day had begun quite cold, by the time we started painting everything had warmed up and we sat comfortably without wind, in glorious sunshine for a couple of hours, amid larches, Engelmann spruce and subalpine firs, craning our necks a bit to take in the spectacle of Liberty Bell and the Spires fringed with larches.