No. 440: Walnut Creek Falls

Walnut Creek Falls by Tom Wills, No. 440, May-June 2019, watercolor

The story of how this painting came to be has nearly as many twists and turns as does Walnut Creek winding through my little city of Cortland, Ohio.

I'd venture some people never knew about these waterfalls under the South High Street bridge.  I certainly didn't until May of this year.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

A crate of colors.

From the beginning:
I had a new metal roof put on my house in September 2018. The contractor had a lot of irons in the fire at the time, including a sewer pipe break at the old house he'd just bought with hopes of renovating. The place used to be called The Old Mill Gallery, an arts and crafts place -- and later some apartments -- just beyond the bridge.

My original snapshot.

My roofer told me the previous owners had a ton of leftover art stuff they were selling, and that I could get it all for a song. But the truth is, I'd just bought a roof and I wasn't singing much.  So I passed and figured the treasure pile went to someone else or was trashed.
He left his business sign in my yard until it snowed and I propped it up inside of my garage.

The first haul of papers,

By April of this year that sign was in the way of my own garage sale, so I threw it in the car trunk and drove it over to the old mill house. He wasn't there but I could see some signs of new construction and the start of a new walkway. So I put the sign on the porch and turned to leave when I first heard, then saw the falls.

Color map and rough sketch,

It was such a bright spring day, with trees and grasses coming back to life, The sky was finally blue and those falls were running hard from April's showers. On a whim I took one picture on my iPhone, then took off.

Here we go!

We had our own garage sale on Good Friday and drew a load of people who had the day off and wanted something to do. One dude who showed up to buy a bunch of kid stuff and old furniture had tattoos all over him. We talked a while because my daughter runs her own tattoo business. He mentioned he'd just bought an old house with a lot of stuff in it that he needed to unload sometime.

Ripples.

Forward to mid-May and I noticed a bunch of old chairs and antique stuff lined up along Warren-Meadville Road. So I stopped in and found it was the tattoo dude's place!
"Am I gonna find my shit in your shit?" I asked.
"Not gonna shit you, you might," he answered.

Weeds, reeds and grasses.

But what I found were piles and stacks and rows of goodies from the old mill: Tons of papers, glass, frames and other stuff. I ended up making two trips over two weekends and for $16 brought back a heap of huge, excellent British-made watercolor papers. I've stashed enough for probably five years.

Trees and branches begin.

Then I remembered the picture I shot of the Walnut Creek falls and mentioned during a Sunday dinner that it might make a good painting to try on these new papers. But I was quickly reminded that there are plenty of unsold paintings here and there are better things I should do with my time.

The woods taking shape.

So I was discouraged for a day, then really irritated, and then motivated: I started the painting on May 21 and finished it on June 2. I drew a paint color map for where the basic colors would go, and then roughed in a sketch. The good paper sucked the colors right in!

Trees and a hint of light to come.

I watercolor washed in the creek bed first, then the greens and blues, then some browns for the woods and blacks and purples for the water and rocks. I built up layers and layers of grasses, trees, flowers, rocks and ripples. Each layer of paint got heavier and brighter, and more detailed. I mixed white in with various greens, yellows and browns to create sunlight and shadows. Again this wonderful paper accepted the paints willingly.

Springtime! 

This painting closed a lot of chapters and had an unanticipated finish: My daughter, the tattoo artist, told me that it looks like my mother had painted it -- that our styles here look similar in texture and coloring. That made it worth doing and gave added meaning to those rays of light shining through the spring trees.

There was some discussion about matting and framing this painting, which does have a dream-like quality. Would a light-colored pastel mat in a dark frame set it off? Probably. Or an oak frame with a dark mat? Sure.

But in the end I went with a frame and mat that mixes in all of this painting's colors: Golds, browns and reds, and of course a mossy green. Jointly they set off the woods and the grasses and the creek bed, which at the time were still dotted by fall leaves.

I'd love to sell this painting, and a bunch of the others on the walls here at home too.  Sometimes it takes a while, sometimes they go quickly. If this one has to hang on a wall for a time here, I can live with that.
And so can everyone else at the table.

To inquire about this painting, or any other paintings and drawings on this site, email me at willstom01@gmail.com or message me on Facebook. I love to talk about my art. Can't you tell?