Painting Water Falls on the Cullasaja

On July 20th I traveled to Highlands, NC to do some waterfall studies. This is the first time I have intensely focused on cascades. What a challenge! Not something for the faint at heart. These waterfalls are like hungry lions, devouring swimmers and plein air artists!

Here is a small video of the falls. Try putting this on 10 x 8 inch canvas. before the late afternoon light changes!

Between Highlands and Franklin, NC lies the Cullasaja River and gorge which contains dozens of spectacular waterfalls. This painting was done from the base of the gorge with a view of the lower part of a 200' cascade.

This is a powerful waterfall known by the locals as bust-your-butt falls. Two weeks ago a man died from being caught under a rock.

This 12 x 9 study done was done about 10am.

This is a cascade over a giant slick rock. You would not believe all of the major poison ivy I had to hike through to get to this one

6 x 8 study in shadow about 1pm

8 x 10 study of the same location with sun and more at a distance about 2:30pm

Here is a view of the King of the East. Whitewater Falls south of Cashiers, NC is the highest falls East of the Mississippi at 411'.

You can not appreciate the size of Whitewater Falls without seeing the movement of water. With this video you can begin to sense it's power and great size.

On Top of Roan Mountain

In June I spent a total of 4 days on Roan Mountain on the North Carolina - Tennessee border hiking and painting. It was an incredible experience and I wanted to share just some of my trip. If you have never been to Roan Mountain, I highly recommend it. It is one of the most beautiful places in all of the East Coast!

A full palette of colors is still insufficient to capture this scene!


Noontime Clouds


On top of Jane Bald looking on to Round Bald. Not something I would recommend painting but I just had to try.


The trail you see is the Appalachian Trail which borders North Carolina and Tennessee. Here your Left foot is in NC and your right foot is in TN.


Just after supper.

Last light on Round Bald a view from Carver's Gap

Here is my kitchen, bedroom, and art storage room.

Painting at Cloudland Recreation Area was really in the clouds on this day. Just a note here about painting greys, you just don't use black and white. There are all kind of colors on a foggy day. I actually used about every color on my palette except black to paint this scene.

On my way home I saw this beautiful creek along NC261 at Bakersville, NC. I just had to stop and try to paint it. A bit too much information and a little overworked though very colorful.

All in all it was a great trip with 15 paintings, a lot of exercise and enough inspiration for a year's worth of Roan Studio work. If you would like to see more photos of my trip go to http://www.scottboyleart.com/Roan%20Mountain%20Trip.htm

American Impressions Exhibit

On April 4th, 2009 I was in Winston-Salem to visit the American Impressions Exhibit. This Exhibit is on display at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston Salem, NC. This show includes about 32 incredible paintings from American impressionists artists from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who were apart of the prestigious National Academy (NA) organization in New York.

All artists and art lovers with an interest in impressionism needs to see this Exhibit at Reynolda House. Some of my favorites works that I saw were from Chauncey Ryder, Henry O. Tanner, Carl Rungius, and Aldro Thompson Hibbard. Overall this was an impressive show and very inspiring to any painter.

The American Impressions will be on exhibit till June 28, 2009

American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA)

Painting by Christopher Blossom ASMA

American Society of Marine Artists is now on display through September 2009. My family and I had the privilege to see this marvelous Exhibit at the Spartanburg Art Museum in South Carolina. The Exhibit will be in Spartanburg through May 2nd, 2009 as it is a traveling exhibit and will move on to its next stop at Wilmington, Delaware.

Everyone who has some interest in art NEEDS to see this Exhibit! On display are 100 paintings and sculptures from the Greatest Marine Artists living today in the United States. If you enjoy fine art, this show will take your breath away! I asked my 14 year old daughter if she could pick the 4 best pieces and she said yes, but it would take a couple of hours for her to decide. This is from a teenager who was reluctant to come. My 9 year old after seeing the show wanted to paint with me when we got home.

Chapman Cultural Center including the Spartanburg Art Museum

For any of you who have not been to the new Spartanburg Art Museum (SAM) it is a beautiful facility and part of the Chapman Cultural Center. The Center includes 3 beautifully designed buildings which were finished in 2007 and costing $32 million. Scott Cunningham, Assistant Director and Curator of the Art Museum and his staff are to be commended for giving us the opportunity to experience this wonderful exhibit from the American Society of Marine Artists. Also going on at SAM is the wonderful Blossom - Art of Flowers Exhibit which continues till June 13, 2009

Plein Air Inspirations

For those of you who do not know Artist Marc Hanson, I want to tell you what he is up to. Marc is a wonderful landscape painter living up in Minnesota and is a plein air master. For the whole month of April of 2009 he is painting 4 - 5x7 inch plein air paintings a day and posting them on his blog each day for a total of 120. He calls it "My Painting Marathon" Here is the link http://marchanson.blogspot.com

That is what you call hard work! By the way Marc is a great teacher also; I took his 5 day landscape workshop at Taylors Falls, MN 2 years ago. I highly recommend him.

Scott

Painting In Hawai'i

Esther my wife has worked very hard over the last year and earned us a trip to Hawaii for 7 days from the company she works with called Stampin' Up. Not only was she good enough to take me along, but she let me bring my paints! We stayed just north of Kona on the big island. Where we were located, the annual rainfall is only 5 inches a year, irragated of course.

This was the first painting I did during our stay. I must humbly say it was a crash and burn, a wipe out, or should I say a wipe down. Never never paint the sun directly, unless you know what you are doing.

Big island is a good name for this place. Not only is the island big, the mountains are big also. The largest are over 13,000 feet above sea level. That is actually twice the size of the Rocky Mountains by comparison and are snow covered year around. And on the other side the weather is totally different. They receive over 250 inches of rain a year.

The eastern side of the island and one of the many waterfalls where it rains almost every day.

We got to see active volcanoes, but I was glad it wasn't too active during our visit. This time last year this volcano blew and sent boulders the size of cars into the parking lot right near where Esther is standing.

Painting at Black sands beach in the wind! You can see my hat influencing my palm tree.

Another quicky. Me, hanging onto the easel and leaning into the wind.

Mountain top painting at about 5000 feet overlooking the Pacific. About 50mph wind kicked up and started blowing black sand all over my paintng and into my eyes sent me running for cover.

Mountain drive where rainbow are common. What a diversity of landscape the big island has.

Hapuna Beach with beautiful white sand. These waves are seriously mean!

Nice spot to paint. It was in the shade, out of the wind and next to the men's room and water fountain!

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

On Friday March 6, I visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO.

This Art Museum is truly a treasure. Its admission is always Free and on Thursdays and Fridays is open until 9PM. One thing that impressed me was the quality of frames. The taste and beauty was stunning and worth the visit just to see the frames alone, but there is so much more to this wonderful museum. Many many must have sacrificed for this great place and it's many treasures!

To see the photo album of my visit click on http://www.scottboyleart.com/nelson-atkins%20museum%20Kansas%20City.htm