Meet the first painting in my new series, 20 First Dates, Elevate, a 12 x 24 inch oil on panel.
This display of peak fall foliage from the Great Smoky Mountains kicks off my special series of paintings, 20 First Dates. To get just the right angle and light, I tromped well off of the hiking trail during one of my Southern Appalachian Naturalist classes at the Tremont Institute while we were tracking animals (in other words, looking for animal poop. For what it's worth, we did come across evidence of bears).
Meandering off of any hiking trail is generally a no-no, particularly because there are wild boars in the Smokies. But the class actually encouraged us to just go off and explore. I never would have had the chutzpah to wander into the woods and get this moment without the blessing of the class. As you can see, it was totally worth it.
