von Haiderthal Fine Art

I love mountains and forests, and the Mt. Batchelor-Three Sisters Wilderness area of Oregon is a vast and beautiful combination of both, with the Deschutes River meandering through it all. A fly fisherman would be in heaven here! Painted as a demo, from a photo provided by a friend and fellow artist.

I painted this one as part of the "Plein Air Holladay" competition held 6–13. October 2018. I spent most of my life in the Holladay/East Millcreek area of Salt Lake Valley, and still love it! There's a large green space with walking paths, benches, sports fields and tennis courts at the top of the hill from 4500 South, from which you have a wonderful view of the northern and western slopes and crags of Mt. Olympus. A lot of it has been left wild, with natural vegetation, and it's a great place to just wander around and decompress.

About seven miles west of Escalante, Utah, scenic Highway 12 follows the course of the Escalante River as it flows east through a spectacular red rock canyon toward the town. After several months of no rain, there's not much left to actually flow...still, a beautiful part of the country! Painted for the annual Escalante Canyons Art Festival's plein air competition.

Painted during and for the annual Spring City Arts Plein Air Competition. Late summer, and the fields are turning to gold...typical north Sanpete County, Utah farm country. The entire town of Spring City is on the national historic register, and one of my favorite places to paint en plein air. Reminds me a little of rural Austria...

Painted at the Fifth Rock Ranch near Midway, Utah. Heber Valley is so beautiful, and this view toward Mt. Timpanogos to the west was spectacular! Several wildfires were raging to the south and west at the time, and their smoke left everything hazy...not a good thing, but it did make for some very interesting depth. The resulting light had a haunting, dreamlike quality.

I knew when I shot the photo in 2011 in Ramsau, Austria, at the foot of the Dachstein's South Wall, that I wanted to do a painting of it, in homage to these deciduous conifers. Lärchen (Larches in English) are deeply a part of who I am. They permeated my childhood in Austria, and I've missed seeing the mountainsides glowing with their golden needles in the autumn ever since. Happily, they seem to have gained popularity here in Utah lately; I see them in people's yards now.

Also painted for Wasatch Plein Air Paradise's Nocturne/Sunrise paint-out–catching the rising sun about six hours after painting the nocturne from this same location...having slept in the car, pulled off the highway nearby so as not to miss the sunrise. Once again, the light and shadows were changing every few seconds. Still, the feel of early morning light flooding over the Heber Valley, with distant Deer Creek Reservoir generating its own fog banks which streamed in hungry tendrils up the valley, was indescribably peaceful–sublime, even!

Painted during the annual Spring City Arts Plein Air Competition. Skyline Drive, a dirt road that runs the entire length of the central Utah mountains from Soldier Summit south to I-70, offers some of the most spectacular alpine vistas in the state. It's certainly one of my favorite areas in Utah, and this view of Mt. Pleasant, Spring City, and most of northern Sanpete Valley from 10,650 feet was not to be missed. You can feel the bite in the air, as late summer slowly gives way to the coming snows of the high country.

Painted for Wasatch Plein Air Paradise's main competition. Wallsburg is this sleepy, beautiful little rural community tucked into a small valley deep in the Wasatch mountains, inhabited by mostly ranchers and farmers. The light up there is incredibly haunting, and the hustle and bustle of the rest of the world seems a distant memory when I'm up there painting. One of my favorite places in the area!

On a dirt road coming off the main highway up to Mill Hollow, Duchesne Ridge, and Wolf Creek Pass, the alpine buttercups were everywhere, making the meadows and pastures glow with gold. The interplay of light and shadows among the profusion of willows was fascinating! This is one of the gateways to the Uinta Mountains, Utah's highest range with King's Peak piercing the sky at 13,528 ft. One of my favorite backcountry playgrounds, with fishing, climbing, skiing, hunting in great abundance.