I love the Smoky Mountains! I enjoyed my time I spent painting there last year in the Tennessee area. I enjoyed another weeklong vacation in the Smokies this past week, except this time I was on the North Carolina side. My wife, her mom, and a family friend wanted to see the Biltmore. I joined in on their excursion so I could do some more plein air painting of the Smoky Mountain scenery. We arrived in Asheville on Monday and spent the day at the visitor center gathering information and maps of the area, then acclimating into our lovely AirBnB.
Tuesday morning, I set out on my own to start some painting. I drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway and took photos here and there from the multiple pullouts. My destination was the Craggy Pinnacle. When I got there,the temperature was a little chilly, but the views were spectacular. I walked around the area for a little while, trying to decide which of the many gorgeous scenes to paint. For my first plein air of my vacation, I chose to paint the middle area of what you see in the panoramic photo below.
At this elevation, the foliage had already turned into their beautiful fall coloration. There were low clouds that were kissing and partly obscuring the tips of a couple mountain peaks. I quickly set up my tripod/pochade box setup, drew a a quick composition on my panel, and started blocking in the colors. I chose a more subdued palette since the scenery had very subdued color.
Soon after the block in, thick mist came over the mountains and obscured my entire view. I couldn't see any of my scene in front of me! I couldn't help but chuckle at my new quandary. If I were to continue painting, I had to rely solely on my memory on what I saw when I first arrived at my scene. So that's what I did.
When I'm out painting at unfamiliar locations, I like to make sure I'm situated where there's lots of people. During my ride up to Craggy Pinnacle, I saw a bear on the side of the road looking to cross it. The last thing I want is to come across a bear when I'm painting alone!
The Craggy Pinnacle had a full parking lot with lots of visitors, so no worries about any bear issues. A few of them approached me to see what I was doing. When I do plein air painting in public, I often engage with people curious about what I'm doing and they're almost always very friendly and courteous. This day was no exception. One of the people I met was Tom Bayham who was generous enough to share a couple photos he took of me, including the one on the right. As you can see, there wasn't much of a view when that mist kicked in!
Besides the thick mist that blocked my view of the beautiful mountainsides, I also had a different challenge. My paint started getting gummy. I don't know if it was the elevation, the temperature, or a problem with one or two of the tubes of paint themselves. It made it difficult to apply the paint in parts and I found myself wiping my knives often and starting a new batch of paint to mix from.
Plein air painting always comes up with new challenges you never expect. That's part of the fun of it. I find I often have to improvise my techniques and my methods at times. It's a different mindset than studio painting. I only have 2-3 hours to get it done because the scene may change with the movement of the sun or the weather. Plus that's about the time it takes before my concentration starts waning. But it forces me to make quicker decisions which can result in a painting with more spontaneity about it.
After a couple hours, here's the painting I ended up with. This is a 14" wide by 11" tall oil on panel painted solely with painting knives. When I finished, I packed up and went to downtown Asheville for some lunch. While I was there, I perused a few galleries in the River Arts District.
With renewed energy, I set out to do a second painting in the Smokies. This time, I decided to do a scene from one of the pull offs I saw earlier that morning at Lane Pinnacle. It was sunny and the beautiful clouds were making large shadows on the mountainsides.
Here's the painting I did that afternoon. Again, this is a 14" wide by 11" tall oil on panel painted solely with painting knives.
Happy with what I painted that day, I packed up and joined my wife, her mom, and their friend for dinner and to relate what we did for the day. The next day, they would enjoy a tour of the Biltmore, while my goal was to paint a waterfall. My evening was spent going over a map and brochures to figure what waterfalls I should visit.
To continue on my North Carolina plein air adventures, check out the next blog entry.
