Skookum Falls Trail, 1 (left)

Skookum Falls Trail, 2 (right)

 Both 36" x 24 ", acrylic on canvas

 

Under the imposing mass of Mt. Rainier along the White River is Skookum Falls. With two drops totaling 366 feet these water falls are certainly magnificent. The falls, however, did not make it into a painting, at least not yet. What is not unusual for me is that I actually became fascinated with a stretch of much less grand rock face, not more than 20 feet high at the highest point, along the trail to the falls. Cracked, mottled and worn the stone was home to miniature ferns, lichen, moss and the exposed root systems of the masses of vegetation, commonly found in western Washington State, growing on top of it.

 

Deciding on a composition to best capture what I was seeing was interesting because the trail running along the rock face drops rapidly in a steep decent. When walking down vs. up the trail the angle at which the scene is viewed from changes because of one's body needing to be more forward or back to not fall. I decided to paint both and see.

 

So, which is better, Skookum Falls Trail (SFT) 1 or 2. I originally thought that SFT 1 would be the more dynamic of the two, and yet the more straight up and down rock face of SFT 2 allowed the horizontal striations at the top to add a sense of competing movement I had not anticipated. Meanwhile SFT 1 certainly gives the sense that the footing along this stretch of trail is by no means level and looking up while traversing it has a dizzying effect. The composition of SFT 1 emphasizes the vegetation while that of SFT 2 emphasizes the rock face. Which one do I prefer? I still can't decide and like them both. In fact, surprisingly, I like to see shown together. They are just different enough to force a double take of the viewer to figure out if the image is of the same or slightly different subject. Which composition do you like best?