Chasing waterfalls

I love waterfalls. I love painting them. Just did a quick check and counted 10 waterfalls hanging on my walls.

My first waterfalls were somewhat accurate depictions of Ash Cave and the upper falls at Old Man’s Cave in Hocking Hills, Ohio, with one abstract exception, which was my favorite (and the one for which nobody said, “that looks just like a photograph.”) Oh dear. Cringe. I mean, I love the gorgeous photography being done in Hocking Hills — and everywhere else! — but I don’t want my art to imitate…well, anything. Hence my current direction toward Abstract. It really is so freeing!

By following light and shadow I landed in the abstract ❤️

Most recently, this wild waterfall appeared on the canvas as I moved paint around. For me, one of the joyous things about painting is the way it allows me to reflect feeling and emotion as well as a figurative image.

Big Canvas & Small Canvas

Working title for my current big project is the Girl on the Ridge. It’s a triptych, with three separate 16″x 20″ canvases expressing a love of the forest. She starts with meditation, then watches and listens to the awakenings on the forest floor beneath the cool morning mist. And finally, she dances with joy in the sunshine high on the ridge. Oh, and my beautiful model is my daughter Jessie.

A section of Awakenings in the Mist, still in progress but almost finished.

A smaller canvas

These little canvases have been getting me through long days of winter. I paint each 6″x 8″ stretched canvas all around the deep, gallery profile sides, resulting in an actual painted surface of 9″x 11.” I am working on three categories: A Wilder Nature, Garden Vignettes and Flora.