Rock, paper, tree ...

Two years ago, Richard P. Hoppe was gazing through binoculars at ladybug-sized climbers notching up a granite face in Yosemite National Park when he noticed a tiny tree improbably sprouting from the rock. Hoppe, a retired Delta Airlines customer service representative from Carlsbad, whipped out the equivalent of a 600-millimeter lens and captured what he calls the power of nature. “You have wood pushing through stone, and stone is supposed to win,” he says. “But Mother Nature can do what she wants.” Hoppe’s photograph “Wood in Stone” won him an award in Yosemite Renaissance, an annual art competition and exhibition that bears the name of the nonprofit arts organization that sponsors both events. Hundreds will file through Mariposa County’s Government Center between now and Dec. 30 to view the 35 oil paintings, block prints, watercolors and digital images on display. “Many people come to the park and see the walls and falls. But much of Yosemite is miniature as well as grandeur,” says Kay Pitts, president of the arts organization. Two decades ago, Pitts and others noticed a dearth of Yosemite paintings and launched the competition to preserve the park on canvas. At first, she says, entries were repititious, as if artists had discovered an X on the ground marking the perfect vantage point from which to paint Half Dome. After admitting other art media and encouraging the quirky and surreal, a contest one year produced a 10-by-40-foot canvas depicting Yosemite as a ranch-home subdivision (it failed to make the finals). This year’s show includes an acrylic coyote, snapshots from a three-month high-country hike and a series of postcards written by Half Dome. To Hoppe, 55, a big swath of land like Yosemite provides instant inspiration: He nailed “Wood in Stone” on his first visit. “The light and majesty of the place is incredible, and the miles of sheer rock walls. I couldn’t believe the colors I was seeing,” he says. The free exhibit runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Go to arts-mariposa.org/receptions.html.

*

-- Ashley Powers