Frozen Sunrise, Mount Toby

Silence at the Roaring Falls.

Mount Toby is a cozy kind of mountain, rising only 900 feet above the surrounding forest.  It straddles the border between the towns of Sunderland and Leverett.  Trails scribe the mountainside from Cranberry Pond in the north to the fire tower and the sugar shack ruins in the south.  Follow them east and down to find the Roaring Falls.  A series of cascades and pools carve through conglomerate cliffs.  This morning, however, the Falls were silent, frozen mid-leap in swirls of cerulean and purple.  Rock faces peek through a thick blanket of snow.  It was too cold even to paint, but I wandered around taking photos and drawing sketches.  I know that I’m looking for the right contrasts of light and shadow, simplicity and complexity.

Because of this preparatory work, the painting itself came together almost effortlessly – a couple months of extremely enjoyable painting.  I cherish this feeling as I continue to struggle with another larger painting that’s taken almost two years of work.

“Frozen Sunrise, Mount Toby” is an original oil painting, 36″x18,” oil on stretched and gessoed canvas, mounted in a simple 1/4″ black floater frame.