2022
Cherokee Falls is an easier walk than Hemlock in Cloudland Canyon, and having just seen Hemlock, I wondered what this would look like in comparison. It was a wider space, a very spread out bowl shape, and the sun was higher so it was much brighter. I enjoyed the angles of the sun across the rock, the trees lit brightly, and the deep color of the water. I wanted to paint the scene as a whole, so I went for the longest panel I had, actually an old cabinet door I made years ago, and went to work. I painted two falls paintings simultaneously and the work I did on either one effected the other. One is a tighter and darker, much cooler image, but they both had that water flow that I really focused on. This painting was a much warmer and expansive view that took some heavy reworking to get to feel right. Part of my problem was the foreground rocks, which moved in and out of the sun for me. But to focus more on the raking light and feeling of open space, I took the light off of the foreground and let the image come out that way. It's funny how many different things you can try in paint and how easy it can be to completely change an image from the direction it was headed.