Murmured in Dreams

Murmured in Dreams

9X12, Oil on Panel

Available

Near Steel Creek on the Buffalo River, Newton County.

#14 of 50

An Impression of the Grand Canyon

An Impression of the Grand Canyon

4X8, Oil on Panel

Available

I started this little plein air close to sunset over the summer vacation to the Grand Canyon after a couple of other failed attempts at larger sizes.  The Grand Canyon is an imposing, intimidating place to paint.  Not only is the vista unimaginably huge, the sky and colors so profound but there is also always the presence of humans and potential watchers making it even harder to work.

This one was completed in 2016 so it does not count towards my 50 in 2017.

Grinder's Ferry, Buffalo National River, Searcy County

Lean to the Light

14X18, Oil on Canvas

Available

I almost can't believe I hadn't posted this one already.  This is a place called Grinder's Ferry on the Buffalo National River.  If you can't tell, the Buffalo is one of my favorite places in the state.  Grinder's Ferry is just downstream from the Hwy 65 bridge.  I did a small arts and crafts show this summer in Marshall, AR and had this one on display.  A young boy who was maybe 12 came up, looked at it and announced that he knew exactly where this was and that he and his dad spent a great deal of time here.  He even made note of changes I had made to it!  Turns out, his family was descended from the Grinders for whom this place is named.

The logging industry used to be the king in Searcy County and Grinders Ferry was a place where logs were rolled into the river to transport downstream.  I believe most of the time they were pulled out at the town now called Gilbert to be loaded onto the train.

The photo references for this piece came from February of this year.  Early rains often swell the river and turn it a beautiful blue green color from suspended rock solids.  I leaned the tops of some of the trees to the left, where the light was coming from, and that's the source of the name of this one.

Tomorrow I'll try to start up a second blog to show all my work that is not related to Arkansas.

More from Hasty

Well, I've uploaded pieces from all 8 counties I've completed as of the outset of this project. I almost have a new county complete and I'll upload that one soon. I also have a couple of trips to report on but on the meantime, here's the sister piece to this one.

Hasty - Downstream

8X10, Oil on Wood
SOLD

This is Newton County on the Buffalo National River. The new bridge is visible in the distance from this location. The old low water slab is still there I believe.

I'm working on a county map to show you where I've been and all the many places I still need to go!

Tyler Bend, Buffalo National River, Searcy County

Tyler Bend Bluff

8X10, Oil on Wood
SOLD

We made a short little day trip up to the river in late February. The sky was clear and bright and the air was pretty warm for February. The boys had a lot of fun throwing rocks into the river here. As the sun began to sink a little bit, it illuminated this bluff in a warm orange glow.

Hasty Upstream, Buffalo National River, Newton County

Hasty - Upstream

8X10 Oil on Wood

SOLD

Hasty used to have only a small little low-water slab that canoes would have to portage over. Now there's a big modern bridge there. This view is looking upstream from the south side of the river access. Both the low water slab and the modern bridge are behind the viewer here. Hasty gets passed over a lot as a recreation area. When we were there last summer for a swim we had the whole place to ourselves. It was a nice bright summer day but here I've chosen to depict a calmer lighting, perhaps early morning.

This painting has a sister, looking downstream towards the bridges, and painted in a more faithful lighting regime to what we experienced. I'll show it later.