As promised here’s my painting from Day 2 of my Yosemite Renaissance artist residency in Wawona. Those of you who’ve being following my recent posts will recall circumstances made it necessary for me to post Day 3 before Day 2. You can catch up by reading the Day 3 post.
Local artist, Sandy Kowallis, was up here painting with me, over two days (Tuesday & Wednesday). She was pretty excited about all the water running down Chilnualna Falls, so, even though I painted this location on my first day, up here in Wawona, with Carolyn Hartling and Sandee Scott, I agreed to paint it again. The thing about painting a long waterfall like this is, you move up or down the falls, even change your point of view and you have a drastically different composition.
Can’t get over how cold it is in the shade here at the stream edge. Tourist hiking up and down the trail, alongside the falls, out in the sun, are in shorts and t-shirts, but I’m wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, covered by a light polyester fleece, covered by a wind and water-proof shell and I’m barely comfortable. It’s a reminder of why it’s important to layer, when out on location, even in the spring and summer.
So hard to see what’s really going on with the splashing, foaming, boiling water moving at this volume and pace. It’s so active it never seems to repeat itself. I’m stuck with just trying to put down an impression of what’s going on. It’ll be interesting to study the reference photos I’ve taken, a regular intervals, when I’m back in the studio. The sound matches the action…roaring! Can’t hear what Sandy is saying to me, just a few feet away.
Sandy’s a trooper, we painted late into the afternoon, ’til 4:30 or 5 pm, before heading back to the cabin. The light had become too severely horizontal to keep working.