The Little River runs alongside one of the most traveled roads in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and it provides tourists with many scenic views of the interior of the park. I have been there many times and hope to go many more.
The trip that produced this painting of a scene just above the Sinks — a spectacular set of rushing waterfalls and whitewater — was in midwinter, much like the mountains are at the moment. Spring is coming, but the mountains have a stark cold beauty in the winter that is hard to match.
I have tried a number of video hosting services — YouTube, Motionbox, etc. — and have found problems with each. A friend yesterday suggested Vimeo, so I established an account and uploaded a video of some Christmas cards that I had done in previous years to the site. Let’s see what kind of quality we get.
The watercolors in this video are some of the Christmas cards that I have painted and sent to friends as of a couple of years ago. I usually pick two or three good scenes and do several copies of each. I wind up sending out 20 to 30 cards a year. Lots of work, but fun, and it keeps me painting. Often, if I have made a significant trip during the year, a scene from that place will show up among the cards. That was certainly the case in 1999 when I traveled with a high school group to New York City for several days. Some of the cards in this video date back to 1997 or so.
I’m not much of a fan of the game, but I like the hype around it. There are usually a few good storylines that sports reporters pick up on, such as this year’s quarterbacks. Eli Manning’s brother Peyton was in the Super Bowl last year and his team won. Now, it’s Eli’s turn. He’s always been in Peyton’s shadow, so we’ll see if he can come out this weekend.
Then there is Mr. Perfect Tom Brady and the NFL’s perfect team. Will they stay perfect? Are they the greatest quarterback/team of all time.
Who knows? Nobody.
But we’ll know the end of this story on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, enjoy the hype and this painting.
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