15 vibrant green meadow. Tony later confessed he was “suspicious” about having “hit on the right thing” on his first foray from the car park. He cited another experience when it took him sixteen days to settle on the right spot from which to paint a vista of the Grand Canyon. Tony said that for him, site selection hinges on gut reaction, but also has as much to do with “formal requirements of a landscape painting as anything,” especially for larger works. One needn’t always follow the rules, though. “I don’t,” he quipped, “but there are certain circumstances where you just look at some- thing, you know that’s going to work.” Armed with the experiences of many wilderness adventures, as well as an eye and instinct trained in the field and in the studio, Tony arrived at the trail- head of this latest Journey (his 18th) both imminently prepared and yet remarkably flexible. He was open to inspiration and guided by an earnest hope to inspire people to think about “the absolute exquisite complexity and interest” of the places he visits. Emerging from dense woods, we found a stunning vista—knee-high golden grasses ran up to the water’s edge and, across the lake and behind a handful of hills, Squaretop rose like an imposing citadel. As a testa- ment to the scene’s beauty and renown, a young couple was having their engagement photographs taken there. I snapped a selfie and we turned back. As we sat around the campfire that night, Tony wryly commented, “Nobody else has ever managed to find me a subject, no matter how hard they’ve tried.” When we first arrived at our campground at Lower Green River Lake earlier that day, Tony had walked around the lake’s northern shore and was surprised to quickly find a compelling site for his easel. From the Lower Lake’s outlet, Squaretop appears nestled between nearly equal-sized peaks. There is a surprising symmetry across the mountain’s vertical midline and again in the reflection of all three peaks in the lake below. Closer ridgelines in the midground slope toward Squaretop’s base, drawing attention to it. In the foreground, the Lower Lake bottlenecks back into a river, its edges lined by a Cody, Wyoming, including myself; and a film crew of three, two of whom had traveled, like Tony, from England. Tony was our shared connection, and Squaretop was our shared reason for convening in this remote location. Tony had come to paint a large-scale watercolor of Squaretop for the exhibition Tony Foster: Watercolour Diaries from the Green River, which would include sixteen artworks of various sites along the Green. While most often discussed as the headwaters of the mighty Colorado River system, the Green—called the Seeds-kee-dee-Agie (Prairie Hen River) by Shoshone Peoples—deserves focused cele- bration as a critical western waterway of great ecolog- ical and cultural significance in its own right. Squaretop stands sentry near the source of the Green and represents the origin of the river in Tony’s series. The true source can be traced to snow fields and glaciers along the Continental Divide. In those highest elevations, the runoff lacks much definition until it accumulates in small lakes lying above 10,000 feet, before dropping into Three Forks Park, where it is fed by other creeks. There, the river garners scale and substance until it empties into Upper and Lower Green River Lakes.2 We raced sunset that evening because we lost track of time seeking the ideal vantage point from which Tony could paint Squaretop. Before the trip, most of us thought the perfect view might be from the shores of Upper Green River Lake. Our thinking was surely inspired by the many photographs taken at that spot. In part because of its popularity, the site was less than appealing to Tony. Also, as a scene, it lacked complexity for pictorial composition; it is a straightforward view, with Squaretop at the center overpowering its surroundings. But, to vet the majority opinion, Tony gamely hiked with us from the campground to Upper Green River Lake. Tony Foster painting Squaretop Mountain, Wyoming, 2022
