At the Falls

Great Falls, looking down over whirlpool, towards Virginia side

Top of the Falls

Two pastel paintings (drawings? sketches?) from Great Falls in Potomac, Maryland. Visitors are allowed to clamber over the rocks around the falls though signs warn of the mortal dangers of one slip up. There were a number of nice flat rocks to sit on that overlooked the white rushing water.   The day was beautiful with a deep blue sky and  trees and foliage still very green from recent rains. It was a challenge to capture the water as it rushed by and to give it the look of movement and not just a static foreground . It might be more effective just to leave the paper untouched and let the viewer fill that in with their imagination. The color of the rocks is very beautiful. Their tops are pale green with lichen and nearer the water they are pink with dried mud. And when the water gets them wet they are almost black.  I am enjoying pastels. They are easy to transport and easy to apply. If you apply them with a light touch you can leave a little bit of the white paper sparkling through or you can use your finger to smear two colors with a smooth blur. Balancing the sparkle and blur seems to be  the point.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 12:46 am and is filed under landscape, pastel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.