I finally got it together to get up to the Indian mounds on the Etowah River. When my oldest daughter was in the Girl Scouts my wife and her friend, Rosemary, planned a trip to the Indian mounds I went along being the kinda guy that is always intrigued by ancient cultures. I remembered the river being the nicest part of the trip and have kept it in my mind as a possible Plein air site. So Saturday the 8th I drove up on a nice sunny day with all my gear. I tried to cut over from 75 a bit early to avoid going thru Cartersville and found myself lost a few times before finally finding the right road and getting to the parking lot around noon. I paid my six bucks and walked right to the first and biggest mound. I carry a pack, and easel and my box and this day I had for or five boards of various sizes—and they’re heavy. I recently bought a sheet of eraser board, a laminate with white plastic on the front. Well, I use it on the back of course and glue primed canvas on. I thought I’d give it a try with the idea in mind that it will not warp a readily as the plywood I usually buy. It’s not much more money but it is much heavier. So I marched up 144 steps to the top of the mound. After all that, the view was just so-so. It was still winter and the trees were just sticks and a big trailer park ruined the view North. Having carried all this stuff up I was determined to do something so I set up my sketch board ( add that to all the crap I was lugging around) and did a few quick views of the other two mounds. Kinda quirky, and not much to interest anyone but one did end up on the Plein Air Website front page for last week. Go figure —Don Maier is a different kinda bird.
After that, I walked back down 144 steps and headed out to the river. It was a nice day and I ended up setting up at the far north of the park looking south down the river for a 12 x24. I only had about three hours and even though it was almost finished when I took it home— I just had to change a few things. I spent another ten hours on it! In the end, I’m still not satisfied with it—how about another ten hours!
