Saturday morning I drove up to check on our property near Helen and do some painting. I got up around noon and drove over near Mount Yonah where I painted this 12 x 12″. It was a glorious day and I enjoyed one heck of a view of this iconic mountain and surrounding area. I almost wished for a few clouds so I could get some shadows in. As it was, the scale might not be as big as it is in reality—those houses needed to be a bit smaller. The surrounding views are about as good as it gets with green hills and cattle plus the nice winding road. I dropped this one in the grass as I packed up and when I got back to the house spent a good hour with a knife picking it clean.
The second view was in the same spot— I just turned around to catch the late afternoon sun. It was near 7PM before I finished but no one was waiting for me so I took full advantage of all the light. A young gall came buy with her dog and I added her in, but she became a he as I brushed in the highlights.
After a Wendys’ dinner and Braves on the TV I hit the sack on a double dark North Georgia night. Up early I did some chores around the house and headed into Helen for a breakfast at my favorite place. I was a mess of paint and I kept my hat on rudely, but no one seamed to notice and after eggs over easy, home fries, sausage and two cups of coffee I was ready to paint. I thought about doing a view of Helen but I decided to avoid the crowds. As it was I stopped at the old Nora Mill and tried to get over on the other side of the river for a nice view of the dam and the mill but there were no trespassing signs everywhere so I decided to set up on the deck behind the building for this view.
I used some of the Gamblin Fast Matte paint for the rough in and I thought it worked quite well, drying up just a bit so as to leave me with a good surface for the highlights that I brushed in as I finished. I still got a lot of visitors but not too many— it’s still early. I was done around 2:30 or so and took a few minutes to feed the trout that grow enormous right below this spot. Also met the mill manager Tom who came out to take a look and relate some stories and local Helen gossip. All in all, I like this one the best of the weekend’s work—Nothing like a good old wooden building and some splashing water. Sometimes everything just falls into place.
