Hanging Rock State Park - Lower Cascade Falls

I liked this subject because the reference picture offered some colors that I normally do not use. My concerns arose when about halfway through the painting process I did not see these colors and the palette was looking quite similar to those in my previous painting of Pearson's Falls. The last part of the work that I did was the right hand side where the magentas and oranges are shown in the leaves. While these colors do provide good contrast, I feel the painting is still very flat. I like all the geometric shapes and colors that I used, but as I now look at the work in its entirety I might have used some better choices for shading to give this work more dimension.

There are four waterfalls at Hanging Rock State Park. The Lower Cascades Fall is at the bottom of the mountain and is what I feel to be the most spectacular of all the waterfalls at the park.

Hanging Rock State Park: Lower Cascade Falls - 18x24" Acrylic on Canvas

Painting on Glass - Hanging Rock #2

The second of series of paintings that was inspired by views from Hanging Rock State Park. Like the earlier painting done this was painted on two different surfaces. The lower surface is that encompasses the sky and mountains is painted on a 16x20" Gessobord. The portion of the painting that shows the rock and the big tree is painted directly on the glass.

I love the overall finished look of these works, but they are so much more challenging than traditional paintings on canvas or boards. A few things to point out.

1. Glass has no absorption - Despite masking and priming areas of the glass - the painting process requires several layers so to avoid streaking. The varnishing is also critical so the paint will not lift off the surface.

2. Framing - I like to offset the glass about 1/4" away from the panel to give a dimensional depth effect. I use spacers around the perimeter of the panel and the all the media is set into a metal sectional frame. I have framed dozens of pieces like this, but as we all know glass is quite fragile. If glass breaks during the framing process of matted artwork, all it costs me is a new piece of glass. On these works we are talking about hours of painting time wasted if the glass breaks. Needless to say the framing part is a bit tricky.

3. Photography - I still have not quite figured out how to do this so as to avoid all the reflections that occur from the glass. Back lighting, side lighting, front lighting - all have their advantages and disadvantages, but I have yet to take a perfect photograph from these paintings.

Hanging Rock State Park #2 - 20x16" Acrylic on Glass and Panel

Hanging Rock

We visited this area last Fall. After hiking several miles up we reached the top of Hanging Rock which is where I shot the picture that inspired this painting. When I began photographing the area I knew almost immediately the types of paintings I would do. The rock is so massive and the view is so spectacular it created two distinct elements that had to be separated. I decided that I would paint the rock directly on the glass and offset it about a half inch from the panel to give me some depth. I began first by painting the sky on the panel - it was not my intention to give the sky so much attention, but I found that some of the colors I was using were not giving enough vibrant punch. I knew these would be behind glass, so I needed to make the sky jump out. The mountains in the back ground are a bit more subtle but help in making the sky and the rock really come alive.

Painting on glass is always a challenge as it has no absorption. Even traditional primers like gesso do not always adhere well. Several coats of priming were used and even then the surface is still pretty tough. I painted the rock, by first using traditional heavy body acrylics in a series of color patterns. After about 8 hours the basis of the rock had formed, but the colors were not vibrant and streaked alot. I then used acryl Gouache to go back over these colors. Everything on the rock is opaque, so I did not concern myself with losing transparency by using the gouache. After doing this I again used the acryl gouache and made the patterns and symbols on the rock that are found in many of my works.

When I finally framed the piece and offset the glass from the panel got really excited from the results. The additional work and challenges of working on glass definitely paid off!.

Hanging Rock State Park - 16x20" Acrylic on Glass and Panel

Hanging Rock State Park

On Sunday we spent the day at Hanging Rock State Park in central North Carolina. It was a great day and I got many cool pictures for future paintings. Ideally we should have been there about a week later as the peak foliage is still not present. Still there are some really nice reds and yellows in the pictures - This will be a nice change as my palette has become way too green as of late.