'Riparian’ refers to the life zone along a
waterway or a lake and the riches are all the life inhabiting that zone
from beneath the dappled water to the foliage in treetops.
“I wanted to do a very long, wide-angle view of a slow-moving river
because I really enjoy painting crystal-clear water with reflections
including the textures in the foliage on the opposite side of the
river,” said artist Stephen Lyman. “I purposely shortened the view to
include just a peek of the sky, because I wanted the viewer to feel this
landscape intimately. There’s sand, lichen on boulders, leaves, trunks
of trees, grasses, roots and many other things. It’s almost like a still
life. Even the bird, a great blue heron, stands motionless in the water,
waiting for a fish to come by for breakfast. I chose him because of his
quiet and patient personality.”
Fine Art
Masterwork
Anniversary Edition
Giclee canvas
Artist
Stephen Lyman was inspired by wildlife and wilderness and nowhere more
than in his beloved Yosemite Park. There, he could climb the highest
point of a crest at 11,860 feet and feel seated on a throne in a place
where the universe seemed upside down, as though gravity were irrelevant
and the sky around him became an ocean. No wonder Lyman’s muse,
naturalist and conservationist John Muir, said that from these heights
in Yosemite he loved nothing more than to dip his head into the sky.
“On an
off-trail backpacking trip, after a steep, strenuous climb up what I
thought was the side of the mountain, the rock suddenly dropped away
into space and I realized I was on a ridge.That experience was the
inspiration for this painting. The mountain goats are surveying the
expanse of a clearing storm from the ‘end of the ridge."
- Stephen Lyman
Fine Art
Masterwork
Anniversary Edition
Giclee canvas
Through years of study and exploration,
Stephen Lyman discovered his calling: to paint the wilderness with
passion and commitment. Through his paintings you, too, can travel deep
into the woods, find serenity at the water’s edge and feel completely at
home in the wild. North Country Shores, part of a series the artist
referred to as “light in the wilderness,” embodies three of his favorite
landscape subjects: water, light and wildlife. “The strong wind is
coming off the lake right into your face, so you can imagine yourself
standing there, your hair blowing back, being washed over by all this
light, beauty and freshness,” said the artist. “The whole feeling I
wanted to paint was golden, fresh, pristine, windblown purity.” Clear,
cold and suffused with golden light, this spectacular, late winter
afternoon vista is accented by the bald eagle poised in flight with a
fresh catch in its claws.
Fine Art
Masterwork
Anniversary Edition
Giclee canvas
There is a Rufous hummingbird on the branch of a mountain
hemlock tree with purple cones which are only about an inch
long, even when mature. In another scene, a grasshopper
climbs a tiger lily. Lyman continues to balance the showy
with the unassuming in the third image by pairing a
swallowtail butterfly with delicate pink mountain heather.
Finally, there’s a ladybug beneath the flowers appropriately
named shooting stars. “They explode with fireworks of
blossoms at the top of the plant,” Lyman noted. Let the
Wildflower Suite light up a
corner in your home or work life with their up-close
wilderness views.
Rufus Hummingbird and Mountain Hemlock (top)Fine Art
Giclee canvas
The planet Venus (also known as the
evening star) has inspired poets, painters and dreamers for
millennia. As the sun sinks below the pink horizon, it appears, a
sentinel to warn travelers to find a place to bed down for the
night. This idyllic scene is part of Lyman’s campfire series.
Why should you buy
Dance of Cloud and Cliff?
This is perhaps Stephen Lyman’s most perfect
painting of Yosemite National Park—indeed, it is
perhaps the finest painting of Yosemite you will
ever see. Stephen Lyman knew the trails—both charted
and uncharted—and terrain of Yosemite as well the
lines in his own palm. His magnificent depiction of
Half Dome captures the grandeur of the landscape the
way that no photograph ever could.
“I saw Yosemite’s Half Dome, caressed by gossamer
clouds and bathed in the fleeting alpenglow,” said
Lyman. “Can words convey this mountain drama? This
is why I paint the wilderness.”
Last Touch of Light
allows you a grand view of one of our most glorious national parks,
Yosemite. Here the Half Dome shimmers in the fading light, above the dark
silent woods.
'' Steller Autumn
is an intimate portrait of one landscape (a tree) and its inhabitants,
Steller's blue jays. In order to capture the intricate details of the scene,
Stephen concentrated on one area of a maple tree.
The Steller's blue jays are seated contentedly among the glowing maple
leaves. As the dark boughs spread upward and outward, the golden leaves and
a handful of sky-blue birds remain, imbuing the painting with a sense of
closeness and comfort ''.
Master work Anniversary Edition Fine Art
Giclée on Canvas
In the Canadian
Rockies, hazy sunlight filters down through the mountains, dancing on
wind-driven ripples of water and bathing the trees in its permeating glow.
The golden-brown hues of autumn add a rich warmth to the landscape. A bull
moose steps lazily around in the lake, feeding on the abundant aquatic
vegetation. The scene is rich with sounds, textures and light, one last
burst of color and life before the season changes to silent winter. Lyman
had said of the painting, "I enjoyed the opportunity to paint diffused light
reflected from a pond in the Canadian Rockies, with one of the largest North
American animals appearing quite small in relation to the vast landscape."
Masterwork Anniversary Edition Fine Art
Giclée Canvas
In the early
morning mist of Noisy Neighbor, a solitary grizzly emerges from the forest,
ambling through the bear grass along the lakeside. The glassine water
underscores the serenity of the moment.
Suddenly the silence is broken by the screech of a Stellar Jay, upset by the
appearance of an intruder into his neck of the woods. Knowing it would be
fruitless to go after the bird, the powerful bear just stands watching,
while the jay, knowing he has plenty of distance from the intruder, boldly
continues to chastise him.
Masterwork Anniversary Edition Fine Art
Giclée Canvas
“Black bears move
silently for being such large animals.”
“In my wilderness journeys I have often been surprised by their silent
approach, either by accidental meeting, or by a deliberate visit drawn by
the aroma of my supper.”- Stephen Lyman
The Yosemite people
called Yosemite Valley Awooni or Owwo for (gaping) “mouth,” referring to the
appearance of the valley’s walls from the village of Ahwahnee, the largest
and most powerful Indian village in the valley. The natives also called
themselves Ah-wah-ne-chee, or “dwellers of Ahwahnee.”
Chief Tenaya
tried to explain the meaning of “Ahwahnee” to white men by using sign
language, but was mistakingly interpreted as saying “deep grassy valley.” In
his own language Tenaya was trying to sign “gaping mouth.” In 1851, the US
government tried to drive the natives out of Ahwahnee, but Chief
Tenaya never submitted and never signed a treaty.
“Red tailed hawks
like to perch on telephone and fence poles and watch for rabbits and mice in
the long grasses. I wanted to capture this particular hawk on its vigil
because of the textures in the scene—in the leaves of the blackberry bush,
the moss lichen growing on the fence post and the plowed field in the
background.”
-Stephen Lyman
“The beauty of a
campfire is in watching its dance.“ The ethereal qualities are
extreme, playing back and forth from the hottest part of the flame to the
coolest shadowed crack in the rocks.” -Stephen Lyman
“Lightning is
terrifically challenging to paint. I’ve seen this phenomenon from a
distance while backpacking, but to actually capture it took a lot of
research and imagination.” -Stephen Lyman
