((Left) Near Wildsptize (Middle) Mt. Bachelor Cornice (Right) Deadman’s Peak by Dave Wachs)
The places that become these paintings aren’t discovered in a studio — they’re earned step by step, often well beyond the end of a lift line or the comfort of a marked trail. From a sunlit bench outside a closed alpine hut in Austria to pre-dawn climbs through frozen timber in Central Oregon, each scene begins as a lived moment shaped by weather, terrain, and curiosity. These journeys — quiet, deliberate and sometimes a little cinematic — are where observation turns into image, and experience becomes paint.
Dave Wachs shared with Cascade A&E Magazine how each of these art pieces was discovered — through travel, exploration and firsthand experience in the landscapes that ultimately shaped the paintings.
On the Cover: Near Wildsptize
“The 007 James Bond Elements was an interesting experience in Solden, Austria but the next day we visited the tiny hamlet of Vent, in the Otztal region of Tyrol. Ascending the southeast-facing slope above timberline on one of the two chairlifts, we saw vague skin tracks leaving the ski area and pointed towards a cluster of small stone buildings a couple thousand feet above the top terminal. Our curiosity lured us upward, and we imagined ourselves in one of the 007 movies, either escaping or pursuing some to-be-determined adventure. Traveling slowly upwards away from the quiet little ski area and towards the historic stone buildings was an enjoyable couple hours on delightful snow. The Breslauer Hutte built in 1892 is closed for business today but has a south-facing patio sheltered from the wind with a nice bench in the sun. Boots off to dry out for a few minutes I used my binoculars as a fake telephoto lens on my cell phone to capture the magnificent peaks and glaciers across the valley. It looked like a scene from a James Bond movie back in the 1960s, kind of shaky and slightly out of focus. This endeavor became the painting you see on the cover of this month’s Cascade A&E Magazine.”
Mt. Bachelor Cornice
Every year for the past 25 or so, David has captured the cornice and other familiar scenes on Mt. Bachelor as subject matter for in-the-studio work. “The cornice is always in the same place but never the same shape,” he says. The layers of snow tell one version of the winter at this elevation on the volcano west of Bend as storms travel from the Pacific Ocean, over the coast range and the Willamette Valley to rip across the north face of Mt. Bachelor. Laminated by the occasional freezing rain event, cold, high-quality snow is cataloged like pages in a book to be considered on a sunny spring day skiing. Pine Marten Lodge has the space to exhibit these large canvas works, and small reproductions are available through his website.
Deadman’s Peak
“Dark in the morning, thick trees, thin frozen snow and ice, on foot carrying skis, following my new friend Mike up into the alpine, I see from the house every clear day without weather or fog. It’s not hard-core gnarly or easy, the view across the drainage on our left constrains our attention, and the avalanche evidence patterns of broken timber laid sideways across the fall line of the steep slope because they were blasted off loudly when the entire basin tore loose and hurled months of snow stacked and drifted down valley. Deadman’s Peak connects on a map to Twin Peak using a single ridge; looks easy, less than a mile, loss and gain less than 1,000’. Someday…”