For the more than forty years that I have resided at Lake Tahoe, I have been painting this magnificent landscape. My fi rst trip to Tahoe was Thanksgiving 1949 when I came to ski on the opening day at Squaw Valley. I awoke in the morning to see the Lake and the snow-covered trees. It was like a magic land to me, coming from the Santa Clara Valley, where we saw snow only on the distant mountains on rare occasions. It was a dream come true, one that changed my life. In the following years, I made many trips to Tahoe to ski, hike, swim, and enjoy the outdoors.
After completing my education at San Jose State University and the University of California at Berkeley, four years of study in New York and several years of study and travel in Europe, I came to Tahoe to live, ski, teach, and paint. Over the years, I have made many paintings of the mountain scenery both winter and summer.
For several years I knew I wanted to do a book about Tahoe, but could not decide exactly what or how. Excellent historical books have been written and many photographic essays have been done. I had already skied all the areas and hiked all the trails, including the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail and the John Muir Trail, as well as what later became the Tahoe Rim Trail. Then, I had a dream of a mandala and instantly I knew how I was going to do the book, and the series of paintings to include.
I copied the outline of the Lake, drew a circle around it with a compass, and then divided the circle into 36 ten-degree sections. I laid this plan over the topography maps of the area, located and marked the highest peak in each section, and proceeded to climb each peak. I decided to climb them in chronological order, starting with the winter solstice, at the northern tip of the Lake, which is also where I happen to live. I divided the days into dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night, so I could capture all of the moods of Tahoe in all it’s seasons.
I had to develop and sharpen all my backcountry skills, including avalanche awareness, as I made most of my hikes solo. It is often diffi cult to fi nd others who are willing to wait while an artist stops to make photos and sketches, have lunch, sleep out at night, and generally linger to look at the sun, the moon, shadows, and all the critters. For me, it was the heights of awareness with my love of nature. When you travel alone, you do not have to divide your attention. Besides, talking scares away the animals and this was their home first.
If the weather or snow conditions were really dangerous, I did not make the trip. Sometimes, I even turned back to try another day. I always took along food, water, extra clothing, survival gear, camera, and art supplies. Colored pens and a sketch book were the easiest to handle.
Some of the hikes were only a few hours and some took several days, depending upon how far the peak was from the road. For example, Freel Peak took several days to complete. Some trips were overnighters if I wanted to capture a night or dawn scene, but most were one-day hikes. Go up, get to the top, have lunch, make my sketches and photos, and get down. I would always leave a message with a friend or neighbor as to where I was going and when I would return. If I did not return on time, call the Sheriff. Sure enough, on one winter hike, I got off the mountain okay, but then my car got stuck in the snow on the side of the road. When I arrived home a couple of hours late, the Sheriff called to check on me. Thanks, Sheriff.
Sometimes I would make a planned winter trip into an area in the summer, so I would become familiar with the terrain. However, the landscape is very different with ten feet of snow or more. But you learn to memorize the ridges and other landmarks. A compass and topo maps are a must. Now there is even GPS.
Over the years I’ve made many paintings of my favorite places and two other series are in progress. Lake Tahoe has become my Giverny, like Monet; my Mt. Fuji, like Hokusai.
Norma Carder 