A painter needs to study, meditate, experiment and practice interminably...Edgar Payne
The Cumberland Falls Beach
I remember the day was cold with a slight breeze. The sun was low and light kept appearing from behind the clouds in quick flashes across the landscape. I have always felt this kind of fleeting light to be a gift. For an artist, this kind of action from nature will cause us to pause and study. We become immobile and silent only on the outside. Inside, notes are quickly taken for later use. Of course, my mental note taking was more important than snapping a photo, so it was after the light show that I took the above pic. However, it has plenty of information for a compositon to be made.
One element of the landscape that pulled at me was the driftwood and how it laid naturally guiding back to the middleground boulders. In this photo of my sketchbook, I have layed out a simple line sketch to estabolish the composition. The larger sketch is a map of light and dark values. It is in the contrast of values that I will rely on my "note taking".
After completing the landscape, I felt that the composition needed something more, so I placed a couple of figures exploring on the smaller rocks with their canoe pulled up onto the beach.
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| Exploring 11x14 acrylic on canvas panel |
