Painting At Cummins Falls

This is the path down which I saw Kevin Menck and Kay Farrar walking toward what was supposed to be a mile long hike to the bottom of Cummins Falls. They reappeared in record time and were elated to have found a shortcut that no one else knew about. I was very interested in going down there myself until I learned that they practically had to rappel over the edge of the cliff. At my age and having never been very well coordinated, I decided that would not be a smart thing to do. Hence the painting of the path instead of the Falls.

The painting on the far left was done on site. The day was cloudy and overcast and I realized that the painting done on site looked as though it was a sunny day. The corrected painting on the right is more representative of the actual light conditions. I used a reference photo taken at the time of the original painting to correct some of the composition errors.

The day was very cold. There were about 15 painters from the Chestnut Group that braved the low temperatures. The Tennessee Parks and Greenways staff had already prepared a nice bonfire for us and supplied hot coffee. We were made to feel very welcome. Cummins Falls is indeed a wild and beautiful natural area. I will return later in the week to paint the falls. The next time I will bring my husband and his 4 wheel drive truck so I won't get stuck in the mud like I did today.