Mount Rainier's volunteer painter visits Alaska

I've been getting periodic updates from Allan Dreyer, who many of you may know as a meadow rover and artist who has painted many pictures of Mount Rainier and donated several of them to park offices and local fundraisers. His notariety went to Alaska recently with one of our transferred employees, who arranged for Allan to fly up for a couple of months and paint for Becharof National Wildlife Refuge and Katmai National Park.

The photo above is of Allan finally getting a break in the weather to fly up and see some of the places he'd so far only known from pictures, including Mount Chiginigak and the Ukinrek Maars. He's been painting at easier-to-reach locations like Brooks Falls up till now.

Allan's trip to Alaska is part of a larger artist-in-residence program there. Former Rainier ranger Julia Pinnix, now at Bercharof, explains:

Our current office exhibit is a retired museum exhibit of Pacific salmon-- and while it is nice, it contains many photos which are irrelevant to our area. Our goal is to replace most of the exhibit with items that are relevant. This includes photographs and artwork. Allan is our first artist, and we've asked him to create two large paintings, one for Becharof NWR, and one for Alaska Peninsula NWR. I believe Katmai NP is interested in having an image of Brooks Camp, and another of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.


I have another volunteer coming, Tom Collopy of Homer, AK, overlapping with Allan. Tom will be taking photos of the villages near our refuges, both from the air and the ground, and we will assemble these in the office to remind us of our partners on the Peninsula.

Allan's "grand adventure" should last him a couple more weeks, and then he'll be home and ready to share his stories with us in person!