Round House is name of the iconic round structure built as a day lodge and restaurant in the early years of Sun Valley Resort, the first destination ski resort in the U.S that opened in 1936.

Round House sits high up on a knoll of the ski mountain. The lovely women that commissioned this painting used to be the Summer caretaker for it back in the 1980’s. In 2010 she asked me to paint a keepsake for her using the medium of soft pastels. The finished mat, which is also painted with pastels, is 30 inches square.

She asked for Fall colors in copper-ish tones. I chose a view from down below looking up, because it shows the distance to which she had to travel to commute for her ‘day job’ working down in the Sun Valley Resort Village. I also loved this view because I got to ‘zone-in’ while painting the poetically shaped rock face on this part of the mountain.

Below are several views of the details of this painting.  The last shot is one of my favorite photos showing the colors of the soft pastel sticks (pure pigment sticks) that I used to create this piece. - G.P.L.