Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe

Zephyr Cove boulder and Bonsai setting

Boys on the boulders at Zephyr Cove in Lake Tahoe

THE BLUE AND AQUAS OF THE LAKE

The blue of the lake ...

“A noble sheet of blue water,” Mark Twain wrote of Lake Tahoe in 1871, “As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface, I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords.”

Explorer John C. Fremont first saw Lake Tahoe in 1844 from the top of Red Lake Peak, which is located south of the basin and what is now Carson Pass. He named it Lake Bonpland after a botanist, but then changed it to Mountain Lake. Subsequently it was named Lake Bigler after a California Governor. The US Department of Interior didn’t care for it either, and commissioned Dr. Henry Degroot, a journalist, to come up with a name. Degroot suggested “Tahoe” an Indian name meaning “big water”. It took decades before the name finally stuck, thanks to action in 1945 by the California State Legislature...

Forest in Tahoe

Pine cone study at the lake.

Pine Cone, Lake Tahoe, California

Forest view in Lake Tahoe, Granlibakken

some kind of blue lake Tahoe

Forest fir the trees, a long weekend in Lake Tahoe at Tahoe City,,,

Lake Tahoe and the tiny sketchbook with a painted view from Rosie's Cafe

A 5 mile bike ride with the family up the side trail of the Truckee River and back to Rosie's cafe for lunch and some time for a quick sketch paint view from the outdoor deck of the restaurant...

Lake Tahoe and evergreen tree, painted view...

One of the views from the cabin deck looking out to Lake Tahoe, digital paint view, a combination of lines, filled outlines, color shapes...

Lichen in Lake Tahoe

Meeks Bay, Lake Tahoe

Meeks Bay, Lake Tahoe, a photo by douglaswittnebel on Flickr.

Painted view of the beach landscape at Meeks Bay, Lake Tahoe...

The lake and the stone hut

One morning down by the rocky edge of the lake waters in Tahoma, I spied a stone hut, possibly a boat storage hut perched above the water line and out of reach from the cold lake waters...my favorite part of this drawing is the deep green darkness of the silhouette of the trees...

Boat House at Erhman site

Boat House at Erhman site, a photo by douglaswittnebel on Flickr.

A painted view of the beautiful and simple wooden boathouse, within the structure the Comanchee speedboat rests...

Lake Tahoe, Da Ow A Ga, dock and swimmers, divers and gazers...

...the completed painted view of the wood dock at the Sugar Pine Point State Park beach, Lake Tahoe...The Native American Washoe tribe inhabited the Tahoe region years and years ago and considered the area as the epicenter of their universe . The Washoe called the lake and the area "Da ow a ga", roughly translated to "edge of the lake". The first white visitors to the area heard the sounds and mispronounced this name, and called it "Tahoe". The name remained in this Anglicized form until present times.

Lake Da ow a ga, Lake Tahoe,

A detail dive...

 

 

Lake Da ow a ga, Lake Tahoe, , a photo by douglaswittnebel on Flickr.

and a sliced portion of the painted view, pier at Suger Pine Point State Park...Tahoe...