6×8″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
I’m still continuing on with my exploration of the waterfalls in the Catskill Mountains. Old Mills Falls is exquisite, with a beautiful, large, transparent pool at the base. I really want to go back and do a larger version of this as well. It’s a pretty steep descent to the falls, so I just stuck my little painting box in my backpack and went hands-free.
12×9″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
Yep, back to Hell’s Hole again in the Devil’s Kitchen area of Platte Clove to do what I seem to enjoy most these days — painting waterfalls! This eastern section of the Catskills is so loaded with waterfalls. Many of them are challenging to get to, but some are roadside and easily accessible.
6×8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This waterfall in the Catskill Mountains provided the perfect cool, comfortable spot to go painting on a hot day last week! The water was crystal clear and glistened against the moss-covered rocks.
16×12″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
I posted the red oxide underpainting start of this work a few days ago. Today I finished it up in the studio. Hopefully it conveys at least a little of the magic that I feel beside this waterfall below the mountain. It is not an exact depiction of the location, but rather an attempt to capture the essence of the elements that lure me to this spot time after time. Pretty soon the foliage will be in full bloom and the scene will change dramatically, providing an opportunity to capture the vista in its newly-transformed state.
9×12″, Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This was my first go at painting this particular waterfall, but it won’t be my last for sure! I had to tiptoe across stepping stones to a little island in the creek to arrive at the ideal vantage point. The painting location was shaded by an overpass while the waterfall was in sunlight, so this will be a fabulous spot on a hot day! There’s been a lot of rain, and combined with the snow melt off South Mountain, the waterfalls were gushing this weekend.
16×12″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
This waterfall is just inside the entrance to our property upstate. From here, the water runs under the driveway and converges with another stream and waterfall on the other side. After a rain, they are at their very best! There are two more waterfalls along this rock ledge that I’ve also wanted to paint for quite some time. I guess at this point I’ll probably get to them in the spring.
I started this painting en plein air several weeks ago. It was finished up in the studio this morning. Below you can see a photo of it as I worked on it outside. The waterfall was totally in shadow by the time I took this photo. That’s why I had to stop and complete it in the studio.
8×10″, oils on canvas covered hardboard
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
This is one of my plein air paintings that hung around the studio for months waiting to be finished. Well, today was the day!
There is a magical, little brook that comes down from South Mountain and through our property upstate. It flows under a bridge that spans our driveway, and cascades down moss-covered rocks in a small waterfall. I didn’t even know it was there until after we’d bought the house, but I’ve been entranced by it ever since. It seems to be compositionally perfect from nearly any angle. So far in addition to this one, I’ve done one gouache sketch of it from the other side, a monochrome painting sitting on one of the rock ledges where the water cascaded past me, and an oil painting from the other side of the brook while the phlox was blooming in fall. In spite of all these views of the scene, I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of the hundreds of fantastic compositions possible from this special little place. There are numerous other waterfalls in and around the property, and although this one is the smallest, I feel it is by far the most beautiful.
I lost my favorite old palette and had to replace it this week. I went over to Jerry’s Artarama in Norwalk to check out what they had, and came away with this wonderful new palette. Today was my first opportunity to test drive it; I love it to bits! Now I’m glad I misplaced the old one.
The birds got to take turns coming out to play today. I love that I have more time with them during the winter months when I’m working more indoors. Here are the adorable ones: Mango and Coconut. They are extremely sweet and gentle. Mango goes to anybody and loves to socialize. Coconut is extremely handsome, but is not so well endowed in the brains department. LOL
9×12″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
This painting was started on location and finished up in the studio. It was one of those cold, overcast, pre-winter days that generally lack excitement, but the falls were spectacular and made all the drama.
Below is a photo of the painting showing what was completed on location. I tried my best to capture all the information I’d need to finish it in the studio. There wasn’t really much left to do—mostly filling in some background color and tweaking a bit here and there.
My palette for this painting:
Red Oxide Transparent (RGH)
Yellow Oxide Transparent (RGH)
Cadmium Scarlet (Winsor Newton)
Permanent Carmine (RGH)
Prussion Blue (RGH)
Ultramarine Blue (RGH)
Cadmium Yellow Primrose (RGH)
Titanium White (RGH & WN Griffin mixed half and half)
10×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sized Canson board
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
Painted on location in Acra, New York.
8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sized Canson board
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
Painted on location in Acra, New York.
6×8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
This painting was started a couple of weeks ago on a very chilly morning at the top of Kaaterskill Falls. It just needed a few minutes of studio touch-ups to call it done. This is one of my favorite painting spots, and I go there often to paint the stunning cascades as they spill over the rocks before plunging down the 279 feet of Kaaterskill Falls. It is the tallest waterfall in New York State.
This was a favorite spot of the Hudson River School painters as well. Back in those times, there was a dam up here to hold back the flow of water. A bucket would be lowered to the viewers below, who would each pay into the bucket for a water release to view the falls. Snack and drinks would also be lowered down to complete the attraction.
5×7″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
This little waterfall presents a nearly perfect composition from any angle. I think I’ve painted it from five different spots now, and I feel I’ve only just begun to explore it’s potential as a painting subject. This past weekend, its charm multiplied as the phlox bloomed profusely along the shoreline of the creek.
With all the rain we’ve had this season, the mosquitoes have been out in full force. I doused myself with heavy-duty bug repellent and stayed out painting for as long as the mosquitoes would let me!
8×6″, oils on Raymar canvas panel
For purchase information, please email me at JamieWG@aol.com.
Monochrome studies are such a great way to work on values. When I don’t have time to do a full-color painting, a monochrome sketch is always a good way to spend the time. I mixed together leftover paint from a morning painting to create this reddish-brownish-purplish mix, took a seat on the nearest rock, and used that with titanium white for an oil sketch of a small waterfall.
Here’s a photo of my Guerrilla thumbox at work with this painting! Isn’t it the cutest thing? It holds everything I need for small paintings.
Click to enlarge:
24×18″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.
This large painting was done using my plein air study, “The Base of Kaaterskill Falls”, as a reference image, along with a photo I took at the scene. I did a value underpainting in Transparent Red Oxide before going in with local color. One of the things I love about the Golden OPEN paints is the way the underpainting shows through without mixing and muddying the color. I would have had to wait for my oil paints to dry before continuing in order to achieve some of the effects I got here with Golden OPEN.
This was one of the spots painted by many of the old Hudson River School painters, and many of the new ones too! This painting is just the bottom tier of the falls; there is another tier above!
10×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylic on “Pearl” Canson Board
Please email Jamie at JamieWG@aol.com if interested.
This is the second painting that I did at Kaaterskill Falls in my quest to follow the trail of the Hudson River School painters. Just as I was completing the first, the sunlight began to hit the falls. Tempted as I was to move on to another location at that point, I decided to stay and paint the falls from the top while I had the light. There were lots of hikers climbing up at this time. I was surprised that most of the hikers didn’t go early to beat the heat like I did!
10×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on “Pearl” Canson board
This scene is available as a studio/commission original painting in any size/price range. Please email Jamie at JamieWG@aol.com if interested.
What is the tallest waterfall in New York State? Niagara? Nope, guess again. It’s Kaaterskill Falls!
My first opportunity to paint on our trip, following in the footsteps of the old Hudson River School painters, was after climbing a half mile up to the base of Kaaterskill Falls. You wouldn’t think one would have to climb so far uphill to get to the bottom of a waterfall, but it is indeed far up the mountain. I don’t think I would have made it without my new ultralight painting box in my backpack. I didn’t have to carry a thing, and my pack was nearly weightless. Here’s a photo of the new painting box and my palette for this painting. I’ll be posting more photos of how the box was constructed in the week to come. You can see that I’ve added an extension to it, which can hold my brushes and palette cup.
In the early morning light, most of the fall was in shadow, so I chose a scene that focused on the waterfall/cascade right at the base, where the light was strongest. By the time I was finishing up this painting, a little light was just beginning to hit other parts of the falls. I stayed to do a second painting that included the top tier of the falls as well. I’ll be posting that one tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Thomas Cole and many of the Hudson River School painters painted from this very spot. There are beautiful cascades all the way up the trail to the base, inviting a series of paintings. In fact, the beautiful Bastian Falls is right at the bottom before the trail even starts to ascend, but it’s definitely worth it to make the climb to the top to experience Kaaterskill. I’m sure I’ll be coming back here many times in the years to come to take advantage of other locations along the way.
We intentionally went the day after a heavy rain, figuring that there would be a significant increase in the amount of water coming over the falls and the drama it created. We were right! Most of the paintings and photos I’ve seen of this waterfall display a far narrower stream of water. We chose the right time to go, even if the way up was a little wet and slippery!
Edit: I just checked the image above on a different monitor and it looks a little too light, so depending on your monitor, this image below may be more accurate:
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.
2.5×3.5″, Oils on primed acid free matboard
It’s another wee painting off my brushes! This one is ACEO trading card size, 2.5×3.5″. It was painted from a photo taken by Deb Leger. (Thank you, Deb!)
In the art world, ACEO stands for Artist Cards Editions and Originals. They are collectible paintings in a standard, miniature format. The size is 2.5×3.5″, like baseball cards and playing cards. They are so much fun to paint and collect that every so often I do a few of them. Some artists sell prints of paintings in that size as ACEOs, but mine are always one-of-a-kind originals. ACEOs are truly fun to collect for those who love art. Everybody can find a place for these little gems, and they are reasonably priced. It’s an easy and relatively inexpensive way to acquire work from some favorite artists.
