The Finale of the 4th Pool, 7 Cascades

I wanted to explore a new path I hadn't taken before which links the 4th pool to the 3rd Pool. I hadn't taken it because the guides told me there were killer bees there and it was dangerous, but I had heard recently that it was alright to go there now as there were no more bees. So, I stopped at the bus terminus to ask one of the guides and he confirmed it was okay.

I set off with a friend to show her the 4th and 3rd pool. We climbed carefully down to the 4th Cascades, had our lunch and relaxed on the rocks then made our way over and up to the 3rd waterfall. I hadn't been back to the 4th pool for a year now, I had wanted to go, but the climb down is very tricky  and I kept putting it off.  The next few days after the walk I kept thinking about the 4th pool. I had made a big painting of the pool but wasn't happy with it, it had changed twice, here it is:

Oil on canvas 35x42" First attempt A

Oil on canvas 35x42" painted over the one above. 2nd Attempt, same picture as above.B

5x7" oil on board done on fist visit in July 2011.

I took my small 5 x7" study above which I had done a 15 months ago and decided to rework the large red, blue and yellow painting above using this as my inspiration. I worked several days on it and then did a second one - a smaller version at the same time:

Painting 1. oil on canvas 42 x 35" Third attempt.C

Painting 2. oil on canvas 76cm x 62cm Different picture.

I now realise that these two paintings are the finale of the whole episode. I was called to go back to the spot and 'feel the atmosphere' and see the place once again, and  then to make these two pictures. It has been 15 months since I very first went there and made the small oil sketch above. I've finished working at the 7 Cascades now. I've stopped painting for the moment. I feel quite tired from all the hard work and energy spent during the year on these paintings! It's taken me a long time to get these two paintings out. But that's the way it works: you get inspired, keep listening to how you FEEL you should work, keep going back to make studies and then the work that is germinating, gestating inside of you, one day is delivered and you feel exhausted.

I always know when the work is finished because I no longer FEEL like going to paint there. It's a simple as that. You must listen to your feelings. If you feel like working on a picture, it's not finished. If you feel like making another study or sample you do so. The only difficult thing is that you never know where it's going. Sometimes, often, it stops, and you start painting somewhere else, or put a picture down and not know what to do next. But, if it is meant to go on, the feeling will come back and you will pick it up again and work some more on it or go back to the spot and start work again!! I do feel the work quickening when it's coming to a climax. But it can surprise me, like this one above, and lie dormant for 11 months only to be born in a double version, twins, like myself (I am a twin!). In fact my sister and I are not identical twins, I am the youngest by 15 minutes and am bigger than her. Like the pictures above, one is larger than the other!!  Maybe I should call the paintings: Georgie and Kate !!

The End.

14 October 2013.

I decided to go back to the pools with my large painting above, painting 1, above, as I found it was too stylised.
I took it off the stretcher, rolled it up, packed up the stretcher bars and my tools and headed down to the waterfall.  Once there, I stretched it back onto the stretcher bars and started work.  This is the outcome. I worked quickly. After painting I put kitchen roll over the painted surface, rolled it back up together with the stretcher bars and carried it home.

Painting D

The oil painting above measures 42 x 35" and is similar to one of the pastel sketches I did down there, below. For the moment, I'll leave it like that. It is the emotional response to the place that I have expressed, nothing else. No fancy picture, no decorative statement.

Friday 25 October 2013. I still didn't feel that it was finished so I reworked it once more taking the small oil sketch  below as inspiration. I used transparent paints from Gamblin, USA, cadmium orange, magenta. The yellow is ochre light. I think it's finished now... there are 4 paintings underneath it, see above: A, B, C and D

45"x32" final painting. Painting E, the fifth painting!

small oil sketch done on site 8x10" used as inspiration for the painting above.

I worked some more on the above large paintings, we are now March 2015, all this started in July 2011...just to show you how long a painting takes from the very beginning to the very end: I concentrated on the tones pushing the red back into the distance so that the yellow lady lying down would come to the foreground.  Barry pointed out to me that when one mixes hot and cool colours next to each other whilst keeping the same value it works very well, this is what I'm doing in the background with the terre verte and the orange, likewise with the alizarin and grey.  The lady can be seen in various positions, either lying on her back with her breast, knee and face looking up, or on the side with her face, elbow and legs looking to the bottom right hand corner.