Hidden Falls

Hidden Falls 

9x12

There are some places in my memory that are so much a part of me, that I feel the need to express them in my painting.  This place is one of them.  A few years ago my husband and I were visiting the Bayfield, Wisconsin area.  Since I'm always on the lookout for scenic photography as reference, we asked the locals where we could find some waterfalls.

That day we took a drive to a little town called Cornicopia.  People were so friendly and helpful.  They told us about a waterfall hidden in the forest about five miles in.  The only way to get there was to hike on the ATV trails.  No problem, right?  Well, we hiked back there and were rewarded by a beautiful, pristine waterfall.  I got lots of beautiful shots of the waterfall and river.  It was indeed worth the ten mile hike that day.  Except for the deer ticks! 

Lincoln Marsh

Lincoln Marsh

9x12

This small study is from a photograph I took last August.  My daughter and I decided to go on a photo-hike through a natural preserve area near our house.  This area is part of DuPage Forest Preserve and is a gigantic wetland marsh area.  The trails go on for miles and miles.  So I've only studied a small portion of what this beautiful area has to offer so far.    

My goal is to return at different times of the year to capture the gifts of this natural, magical place.  

In this painting I used three transparent greens - sap green, terre verte and olive green.  To lighten the greens in the grasses and trees, I added naples yellow and white, which brings the greens back to opaque, not transparent.  That's where the paradox comes in.  In order to have the transparent glow,  the color needs to be painted straight out of the tube and not mixed with any other opaque color.  Or it needs to be mixed with another transparent color.  

I'm posting what I learn along the way.  There is a lot of studying and note taking during my current painting sessions.  And I'm painting lots of small studies.