Summer Splendor at the Lower Gabbros

The Gabbro Falls are located in the western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a place famous for my favorite subject, waterfalls. After doing value and color studies on site, I painted the under-layers of this painting on-site with soft and hard pastel (using UArt 400 grade sanded paper), and finished the work later in studio. The clear, overhead light of this late June day cast dramatic shadows and color contrasts, plus the zigzag shape of the falls themselves, begged to be painted that day!