Plein air painting is all about being in the moment and painting what you experience and feel at that exact time and place. But being faced with a scene like this, with all its beauty, noise, movement can be pretty intimidating!

I was standing there with a blank canvas, thinking how on earth do I start this? So I spent some time just watching and thinking about why I want to paint this, exactly what is it I want to say?

I decided that the emotional pull I was feeling wasn’t anything to do with the beauty of the waterfall. It was more about the pure volume of water, it’s powerful surging movement, the feeling of being swept away. This helped me to decide exactly how to approach the painting. I felt this was best said by focusing right in on one smaller area of wave action, as that powerful surge would be lost if I painted the entire scene. So this is where my focus lay.

And this is the result. My painting and my inspiration together.

SPRING MELT 9″ x 12″ soft pastel