I did this painting for my wife’s sister Adri. My wife and Adri are from Holland, so it wasn’t hard for me to come up with something to paint for her. The Dutch windmill is iconic. Most people immediately know that this kind of windmill scene represents Holland. Early on in my blog I did a windmill painting for my wife. I made one on two pine planks glued together.
After camping here for a week with my wife in May of 2015, I decided to do a painting of Cane Creek Falls. This state park (Fall Creek Falls), is nothing short of spectacular. In fact, it’s hard to believe a it’s only a state park. In my opinion it could be a national park. It’s located in Tennessee and it’s massive with over 26,000 acres. There are six major waterfalls located within it. In the foreground of this painting is Cane Creek Cascades. Cane Creek Falls is in the distance, and its not even the largest falls there (85 feet). That title belongs to Fall Creek Falls (256 feet), and its the tallest water falls east of the Mississippi. This place is absolutely amazing. Beautiful hiking trails, a lake, lodge, vistas and abundant camp grounds. This is just one painting of it. I could do 30 paintings of this park, and not even scratch the surface depicting it’s beauty!
I enjoyed doing this painting because of the time of day approaching sunset. The orange sky splashed on the trees and water nicely. If you are looking to paint something for the first time, you just can’t go wrong painting nature. I didn’t use cedar planks this time. I used pine planks. They are basically the same as far as dimensions, but the wood is a little heavier, but its also smoother. For me cedar or pine do very well for my canvas. I won’t paint on anything else for now.
Since I started painting again this year (2016), this painting is #16. I’m going to keep running with it and see where it goes. I’m practicing for retirement. Like I said in other parts of this blog, I’m just trying to show that the wood canvas is part of the art, and I’m trying to encourage that anyone can give painting a try. I have absolutely no training is this. I’m simply winging it with my own painting style. I don’t care if it’s right or wrong. I’m just going with the flow, or in this case with and against the grain. If I can do this, anyone can. There is one problem I am having now though. I’m running out of wall space to hang the paintings. Oh well, I guess I’ll just start stock piling them somewhere or give them away to anyone who wants them. I hope you enjoy the falls. It’s a great place to escape.
Well if you made it this far it makes me happy. As I have discussed in other parts of this blog, I decided to show the world that a wood canvas can be part of the art. I would like to thank my wife for urging me to make a blog. The above painting is for her since she is Dutch. This is an actual place called Kinderdijk. We have been there several times. I met her in Holland when I was in the military.
As I mentioned before, I like to paint but even more I like to do wood working. Why not combine both I thought? Now I know that I am not the first to paint on wood. When you google this kind of art it’s all over the place. Artists use many types of wood canvases. From drift wood to barn wood and even pallet wood and everything in between. I use cedar planks that interlock. I haven’t seen anyone else do this, but there may be? I’m not saying I am the only one on the planet doing this, I’m just saying I haven’t found anyone else using this type of wood canvas. These cedar planks can be cut to any size. I have done small to very large paintings on them. I simply cut them and glue, clamp and sand. These cedar planks are the thickness of wood paneling and are light weight, but very strong when two pine board cross members are glued to the back of them. As I said, the wood itself becomes part of the art. The seams where the planks are glued together are easily seen. This however, doesn’t take away from the painting in my mind. In fact, it adds something to the painting I think. I can’t quite figure out what it adds, but in my opinion it certainly doesn’t take away anything from the art. The other part of this canvas is the wood grain, knot holes and various wood markings and discolorations. Again, these natural imperfections in the canvas seems to add to the painting.
Thank you for taking some time to review my work.
Wood Canvas Artist 