The original is a 48x36 Oil on Canvas painting. Wildland Firefighters is one of a long line of flag paintings that represent our country and its people, both the light and dark sides of who we are.
It is a great honor to take you behind the scenes of how this daunting painting was created. When I was asked how this painting came to be, my first words were, “It started with a chef.” "What?" is the usual response. The chef of a small, local restaurant had an image of a grapefruit smack dab in the middle of a white canvas that was definitely out of place there. He didn’t know what to do with it. So, I asked if he would be willing to part with it, assuring him that I could definitely find a use for this lonely canvas.
It wasn’t long before the grapefruit was transformed into an ominous storm scene with lightning strikes lighting up an otherwise orange and black mountainous landscape. The painting sat like that for a while. One day, Ann, my manager, and I were having a conversation about first responders. I showed her my orange-colored sky, and she wondered if this might be a backdrop for a wildland firefighter painting. Already giving off a vibe of a place you might want to stay away from, I took on the task of bringing that idea to fruition.
She watched as I sketched the outline of the firetruck. Then I added the color green to it. This image was taking on a new meaning. As I added details to the truck, she began to see a road being drawn to the right of the truck. What was in this artist’s mind? The next time she saw it, there were yellow spots randomly peppered across the road. People, she guessed, but you couldn’t tell at this point.
Trees were added to the right and left as the truck’s details manifested and the yellow spots began to look more and more like real people. Then I asked her to find names of fallen wildland firefighters. She searched the internet for organizations who might possibly have information like that.
That’s when she came across the Wildland Firefighter Foundation in Boise, Idaho. This organization helps families of fallen firefighters. They provided us with the list we sought. The names from that list are hand-written by me in the sky portion of the artwork. This painted canvas now hangs in an area on this foundation’s property for all to see when they visit.
This painting has a special place in Ann's heart. Her uncle died fighting a forest fire in Yosemite National Park. His name is one of those written in the sky of this piece of art. Someday she hopes to make it to Idaho to see the painting in person.
Thank you all for your service. – Craig
Support the Wildland Firefighters Foundation at https://wffoundation.org.
The symbolism includes Wildfire Fighters up in the middle of the night to protect both nature and people. The names in the sky are those of fallen fire fighters.