Carolina Hemlocks

Our weather has been very rainy here in Western North Carolina for the whole month of July.  Totals vary, but at our house we've had about 10 inches.  Normal rainfall would be more like 3 inches.  As a result, rivers are much higher than normal and running fast.  In fact, people are being warned to stay out of the rivers.  Too dangerous.  

Well..... we've just come back from an overnight trip to Carolina Hemlocks, a park along the South Toe River on Highway 80 South.  This is a beautiful park that includes camping and picnic areas.  The river is very popular for tubing and apparently there were a lot of people not heeding the warnings, because there were a lot of colorful tubes rushing down the river.  Truly rushing, not the normal lazy floating I normally see here.  And truth be told, they appeared to be having a blast.  

The weather for our trip was perfect - high only in the 70s.  Lows in the 50s.  Perfect sleeping weather (especially since there are no electric hookups there, so no air conditioning).  And best of all - the sun was out.  It's been such a stranger this month.  

I painted two paintings while we were there - one yesterday afternoon and another this morning.  The tubers were moving too fast to capture them, in case you were wondering!

Here is yesterday's painting.....


South Toe River Rocks, Carolina Hemlocks
6" x 8" , oil on paper
And here is today's......

South Toe River II, Carolina Hemlocks
6" x 8", oil on paper

I'm considering working a little bit more on today's painting.  The rocks on the right side need more detail.  I've been setting a time limit on these plein air pieces and it looks like maybe I could have taken just a little bit longer with this one.  

Overall, I was delighted with my paintings from this little trip.  It feels like I'm finally "getting it".  I've been practicing and studying plein air painting now for several years and it is very exciting to finally be able to capture what I'm seeing.  

Thanks for stopping by.....

susan

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