2009
There is a great road that runs along the Cullasaja River Gorge. There are lots of places to pull over and see falls and rapids as the river flows. I happened to go after a week of heavy rain, to see the river when it was up and raging. Quarry Falls is a wide open set of falls with gigantic rocks littering the whole scene. Think of the power of that water moving those huge rocks, it's just amazing. I worked to capture the violent flow of the water and the geological patterns of the rocks working together.
I reworked this piece later to highlight the bright foreground and intense morning light flooding into the middle ground from the left. My original fascination was the massive white water shape in the center of the whole composition, but after living with this painting long enough I found myself drawn to the idea of isolating the light more.