Spirit of Guadalupe

The majesty and beauty of our country’s national parks has long been part of my artistic imagination. Even as a child when I began visiting these untamed places their emotional impact on me was real and profound. Those early transformative experiences were only furthered when I grew to fully appreciate the works of other artists and their interpretations of these natural treasures. Fredrick Church, Albert Bierstadt, and of course my uncle Thomas Kinkade, all came to influence my own efforts in oil seeking to capture what I was seeing and feeling inside.

In Spirit of Guadalupe, the first of my America’s Wildland Series, I explore a little-known region in my home state of Texas that is protected within Guadalupe Mountains. Set at sunrise as the park’s inhabitants just begin to stir, the background is dominated by “El Capitan” the best-known peak of the Guadalupe range. Mule deer and road runners forage for food as a golden eagle flies above and scans the ground below. Splashes of color dot the landscape in the petals of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush as well as on the wings of monarch butterflies.

It is spring in Guadalupe and a moment of verdant green hangs on before the coming summer heat has chance to grey the rocky terrain. My plan is to visit many of our nation’s parks over the coming years and chronicle the sights, the flora and the fauna of each for those of you who would enjoy my captured moments. And, as always, I want to thank you all for sharing my adventure in art.

~ Zachary Thomas Kinkade