Ah Summer. The joy of doing something just for the joy of it.

That’s what we decided to do on a Saturday afternoon in July.

Chores aside and to-do list ignored, we packed up our painting stuff and set off for an adventure, whatever it might bring.

Allan loves the Lewis River near Spring’s house so we drove up towards Lucia Falls where we’ve painted before.

Allan knew of Moulton Falls but had never been there. I’d never even heard of it, and wonder why because it’s so beautiful. SoCal people would die for a place like this. Combined with perfect summer weather (which we haven’t seen in forever), and good hiking shoes, we explored the trails and shady spots until we were tired.

Ready to paint at last, I picked a shady spot with lots of water reflections and a low hanging tree. Allan was inspired by the sun worshipping people across the river.

I had no preconceived ideas for my painting. I didn’t even set out to capture what I saw. Instead, I just wanted to capture a feeling. I didn’t even worry about all the stuff that usually derails me: proportion, scale, perspective, blah, blah, blah.

Just the feeling. Moss, rippling water, depths of green forest, shadow, light, branches. It’s a simple, 2-dimensional representation of what I saw and felt at Moulton Falls on Saturday, July 23, 2011, around 3:30 pm.

Here’s Allan’s painting. It’s 11 x 14 acrylic on canvas

A few photos taken on location:
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Me painting!