Nar Phu Route Map Completed!

The talented Jason Kamin, expedition artist from our 2012 journey into the Lost Valley of Nar Phu has created yet another masterpiece - this one to be featured as our route map in my book A Story of Karma.

Creating the Map Painting in Jason’s words:

I paint almost exclusively in oils. I generally include a lot of layers within my paintings so they tend to take a long time to complete, as I often have to wait a week or more for a layer to dry (such as the background in a painting) before applying another layer on top of it. 

With the map painting, the challenge was to fit a big trek into a small canvas.  The distance we traveled to Phu village (around 80 km) could only be shown on a painting if the view was from high above.  So this also created a broad overview of the landscape.  Of course as an artist you can add as many details as you like, but to eliminate clutter on this particular map view,  there was only enough space for  major rivers, valleys and a few landmark villages along the way. 

Still, I used the most essential tool when planning a painting... and that is composition.  The placement of the main river (more to the right side of the painting), snow-covered peaks, cloud formations and greenery are all set in a way that keeps the painting interesting to view, yet geographically representational (albeit not exactly to scale of course).

The clouds were essentially the only free reign I had on placing objects into the overview that are not geographically stationary. In addition, the softness of the clouds that I applied in the end with a whispy brush counterbalances the ruggedness of the mountains, which I layered in very thick with a palette knife.  The choice to label the villages and landmarks in those colours were primarily aimed at legibility - standing out from the background so they could be read at any scale.

What's funny is that it was only during the process of creating the painting did I realize the sheer distance the team covered there and back over this Himalayan mountain trek!

View more of Jason Kamin’s art