Field Notes 2020: Nathan Di Pietro

December 2020

Nathan DiPietro, Seattle based painter and digital artist, was initially in residence at Bloedel Reserve in March of 2020. But his residency abruptly came to a halt when the Reserve had to close due to the COVID pandemic. When we were able to reopen, we gladly invited him back and back he came.

Unfortunately that second visit in September of 2020 coincided with the wild fires that spread a thick haze over the entire region. Not an easy thing to cope with for someone who is shooting drone footage of the Reserve for his project. So we are especially delighted to share these “field notes” from Nathan, which we received at the end of December, along with photos of his work-in-progress and links to two completed videos. Enjoy!

I returned to Bloedel Reserve in September to complete my residency which had been cut short by the pandemic shutdown in March. I found an early fall with flowers mostly gone and trees turning color and dropping their leaves.

For the final leg of my residency, I committed to an expanded project, building upon work done in March, to paint the entire Bloedel Reserve in virtual reality (VR). Drone photogrammetry scans of the main house, middle pond, and Japanese garden had been performed by Randy Allbritton in March. I created detailed 3D models from these scans and brought them into TiltBrush, a VR painting program, to form the core of this project.

I then brought satellite imagery, topographic maps, and land surveys into this VR environment as references to hand paint the landscape in a 4km square around the Reserve. With the big picture taking shape, I considered how to tackle the intimate details of the Reserve. On my daily walks, I began photographing everything of interest and taking simple shots down the trail every few feet as I walked. These 100s of photographs were brought into the VR environment and placed in the approximate virtual version of where I determined they were shot from. It became a line of photographs tracing the trail. These images were used as visual and color reference to recreate the Bloedel Reserve’s winding trails, environments, plant life, and wildlife. This process of creating a digital version of the Reserve was challenging, rewarding, and allowed me explore the full potential of my VR creative tool set.