Attempting to Paint a Waterfall

Nan and I stopped at a local waterfall in December 2023 coming home from breakfast. She’s been into painting waterfalls and wanted this scene. I decided to try a waterfall scene myself as I’ve never done one. They always look too complicated.

I always take many pictures, different angles and such. I edited a few and chose a couple to work with. However, when it came to doing the initial sketches, I was at a loss. I prefer to do my sketching freehand, but somehow, even with working the Rule of Thirds, I get mixed up with the horizontal ground lines working downhill when there’s a lot of busy-ness.

I tried using the projector. I could not seem to get it to a size I want. It ended up bigger than I wanted. I tried to work it but kept getting mixed up as to which spot I was trying to do from photo to the sketch layout. I gave up.

Over a month went by and the scene began calling me again. Today, I decided to give it another go starting from the beginning. This time, I decided to trace. I printed 8 x 10 copies of two scenes after re-editing and cropping further. Then I chose white BFK Rives paper cut to a size I’ll be comfortable with and began tracing.

Got them both done. So far so good. Next, I set up on the table to make better lines with a charcoal pencil. I again started getting confused. I got out a blue pastel pencil to differentiate between water and land. It took a while, but I eventually got both sketches done. Phew, a lot of work.

Took them to the studio and taped both to the stand-up easel. One measures 8 ¼ x 10, the other will be 9 ½ x 8 ½. I’ll probably work both at the same time. ‘Course, that may change when I really get into it, ha-ha. I took black pan pastel and put in a little behind-the-trees darkness on one to see how it’s going to look. 

It’s a start.

The Corruption of Wealth and Power

I believe there is a huge gap between the wealthy, including politicians, big business, and the rest of the people. There are more rich than ever before, and most have become super greedy. It’s an addictive disease. It gets so it’s never enough for them.

 I truly believe many people start out with good ideas and good intent, but once they get into a powerful position, an old saying comes to the fore:

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority.” – Lord Acton, British historian in the late 19^th and 20^th centuries.

This need for more wealth and power is destroying society. Unfortunately, there is less and less freedom of speech and more and more of our liberties are being taken away. And it creeps down into the smaller, local towns.

Even criminals these days seem to have more freedoms than common people – those who have money, those who can “buy” their way out. The corruption among elite and organizations has escalated, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything anyone can do.

And being told to go to the polls and vote has turned into a big joke. It’s a way to make people continue to believe they really have a voice. Yeah, right. Everything has gotten so convoluted, it’s hard to trust anything or anyone anymore.

They create good-sounding, helpful organizations to make it sound like they’re doing good work. They change the meanings of words. The definition of some words in dictionaries are not the meanings behind words being used these days. It almost seems the opposite.

For instance, whenever I hear the word “transparency,” my thoughts go to “What are they hiding.” When I hear the word “woke,” it means the opposite of being open-minded and being fully attentive to what’s REALLY going on. Words are used to confuse the masses between original meanings and intent to what is actually happening in today’s world. Because people will listen to nice words and not pay attention to what is being done and/or happening.

The most important thing people can do now is question. Question everything! Look for the deeper reasons behind what is being promoted – whether in politics or business. What is logic and truth versus what are the hidden agendas. Always ask, “Who are the ones really benefiting from this?”

There’s too much smoke and mirrors. People’s attention is directed in one direction, while those in authority are doing something else. There’s no balance, no fully listening to both sides.

I fully believe freedom for the people is being slowly crushed while the elite go on living life as if nothing is wrong. They are so high up in their towers, they have no real clue of life. Even those who have come from lowly backgrounds, once they reach that upper crust of the powerful, seem to have forgotten where they’ve come from and what it was like. That line about “… power corrupting absolutely” is in full swing.