Just finishing up...
Last autumn (a great time to visit Asheville, and the mountains of western North Carolina by the way), a really nice couple from Austin, Texas asked me to do a large commission for their home. They love contemporary art and really liked my process. They explained that they wanted a mountain scene with a lake and birch trees, and naturally, I was thinking they were talking about our local mountains. I love our mountains and lakes and streams of western North Carolina, so I was excited to start work on it. But then they sent me a photo of the Rocky Mountains and I was SUPER excited. Now THESE are proper mountains. When the tops of the mountains are above the tree line and are covered with ice -- those are proper mountains. The Rocky Mountains and and Sierra Nevada's are very sentimental to me. That's where my parents would usually head for camp outs during summer vacation from school. I love the smell of endless pine trees -- resinous and almost a caramel scent. I love it!
The Blue Mountains
by Henry Lawson
Above the ashes straight and tall,
Through ferns with moisture dripping,
I climb beneath the sandstone wall,
My feet on mosses slipping.
Like ramparts round the valley's edge
The tinted cliffs are standing,
With many a broken wall and ledge,
And many a rocky landing.
And round about their rugged feet
Deep ferny dells are hidden
In shadowed depths, whence dust and heat
Are banished and forbidden.
The stream that, crooning to itself,
Comes down a tireless rover,
Flows calmly to the rocky shelf,
And there leaps bravely over.
Now pouring down, now lost in spray
When mountain breezes sally,
The water strikes the rock midway,
And leaps into the valley.
Now in the west the colours change,
The blue with crimson blending;
Behind the far Dividing Range,
The sun is fast descending.
And mellowed day comes o'er the place,
And softens ragged edges;
The rising moon's great placid face
Looks gravely o'er the ledges.
This painting commission got the last touches of oil paint on it yesterday and received it's first layer of resin last night. (it's after the resin is applied that this landscape will sparkle with light -- looking forward to seeing it later this morning. We'll have this ready to be shipped next week, then...on to the next project.
