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                                                              Backwater Seaweed

                                    Another view, leaves are gone and the colors more subtle.

     

                                                           In the Tennessee River Gorge


                     I painted this study  in early November, on one of those crisp blue-skied afternoons, right before the balmy weather and beautiful leaves left  for the winter months.  It was such a still afternoon; the reflections were so saturated in color across the little backwater. The Tennessee River is in the distance.  At this point it is surrounded by mountains and few manmade structures.  It feels almost like it did hundreds of years ago, except for the occasional bass fisherman....

This is what I painted the following day.  I think the light was brighter and there were no clouds in the sky.  As if the yellow ginko were not challenging enough, the water in front of it would not be still long enough to capture.  After I finished this study, I thought I would make it into a larger painting.  It should  translate well.

The weather was just perfect last week and my painting friends and I went to the Chattanooga Nature Center to paint.  This ginko was glorious in its yellow phase.  It seemed the sun lit it differently about every thirty seconds, but I couldn't help but try to capture the light and shadow.  The next day I returned for another go at it, and then painted the tree from a different angle.

I love shadows, especially on a white building. 

A couple of weeks ago, I painted in Chattanooga's Southside neighborhood.  I was drawn to this house because of the brilliant red reflecting and bouncing in the morning light.  I really liked trying to analyze the different colors of red.