One day several summers ago I went up to a high mountain lake in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado. It was a beautiful spot with a wonderful view of the lake reflecting the mountains beyond. As is often the case for me though, I found myself more interested in the little grove of aspens nearby and wandered through that area for about a half hour before coming upon a group of aspens that formed a sort of inverted triangle shape. The light was streaming in all around them, and for some reason they reminded me of those Renaissance paintings with a triangle composition of the Holy Family with light coming in from stained glass windows. I sat down and drew them in charcoal. 

That drawing always brings back a clear memory of that morning and I have returned to this visual idea several times. Recently while looking through my Colorado sketchbooks, I found the charcoal drawing again and the memory of that light filled morning and the shape of the aspen ‘family’ came flooding back. This painting is the result.