Crab Orchard Falls

I was inspired by the dappled light and the feeling of quiet solitude. I spend a lot of time camping and painting in the North Carolina mountains throughout the year. This is one of my favorite spots. I worked primarily from a small oil study and painted this one in the studio. I used a limited palette for this focusing on secondary colors and their relationships. I try to work on specific things with every painting I do. This one was in part about creating atmospheric perspective with dappled light. I wanted it to be very subtle and not too contrived. I also wanted the viewer to feel the variety of textures and depth in the water. I was very aware of the subtle value changes in the water where bits of light are hitting the choppy surface and shadows are tinting the falls green or purple. Sometimes there was dappled light on the water making it a bit of a challenge to create a convincing surface plane. Everything green was slightly damp and I was very intentional with capturing that without creating too much contrast. I do feel like I captured the overall feeling of quiet solitude in a lush mountain setting.
I use primarily Gamblin Oil paints on a double oil primed linen canvas adhered to a braced sealed birch 3mm panel. I build my own panels using acid-free archival glue which have been doing ever since I learned how to from Kevin McPherson in 1990's.