Stone Mountain an Artist’s Journey by Schelly Keefer
My friend, Amy and I kicking back at the top of Stone Mountain
Come along on an artist’s journey to Stone Mountain, North Carolina.
Stone Dome 15.5” x 25” Paste Painting
I'never seen a bald mountain before. The spectacular 600-ft granite dome of Stone Mountain, near Elkin, North Carolina, towered over us as we stared up from the parking lot. Then we started up Stone Mountain Loop Trail, a wonderful journey through diverse habitats. We chose the short way up to the bald and the long way down, past the rushing waterfalls, into the deep forest glades, finally emerging into the pastoral setting of the rural farm. It’s a long and demanding hike, but an artist’s paradise for subject matter.
The incline is steep and the trail boasts many warning signs. Reaching the summit leaves you breathless, if only from the climb. I wondered how many others had come this way before us: indigenous people, explorers, backwoodsmen and if they had stopped to take in the beauty and the peace of my surroundings.
In my mind I began breaking the beautiful September vista into shapes, values and colors: bring the tough trees that eke out a living up here, forward, by adding more yellow. Emphasize the distance by using additional blue. Put yourself in the moment then take it away with you to share with others. Paint it from your heart.
It’s hard to leave a place where hawks soar below you, but after an hour of wind and sun, we entered the woods, following a wide trail that crests the mountain. As we meandered down the mountain, the slope increased dramatically and the rushing of waters greeted our ears. Stone Mountain’s waterfalls are flashes of swift water that caress the granite face, then leap into the air in dramatic steps, like an amusement park flume gone wild. At the bottom, the fall feeds a rock pool where hikers cool their feet in the shade.
I wondered how I could ever capture the waterfall in two dimensions. As I studied the scene, design elements came to me. I saw how dark the woods appeared behind the water, in contrast to its bright spray. In painting water, one looks for the reflective surface and the depths. The reflective surface draws its color from the bounced light of the sky and foliage around it. The color in the depth is created by what holds it: earth, sand or rock, for as far as the light penetrates. With waterfalls there is an additional element, the spray. Spray, with its playful variety, is a lot of fun to paint.
Water’s Way 15.5” x 25” Pastel Painting
We continued down the trail and followed one of the small steams. I love these quiet places, with dappled sun playing across the varied surfaces. Nature makes collages of deep pools, shallows, chunky rocks, last year’s leaves, and this year’s growth.
As we came around a curve in the trail, the space opened up. Again, we were treated to the spectacular granite dome rearing straight up before us, set off by the mountain meadows surrounding the preserved Hutchinson family farm. This time my job would be easy, I couldn’t have asked for better composition if I’d arranged it myself.
Later, in my studio as I study the paper in front of me, I look at my reference material and recall what enthralled me about the place. Then I close my eyes and put myself there, back on Stone Mountain with the strong breeze in my face, the sun warm on my back. I feel again the sense of the pine’s struggle for life. I remember my heart racing from the exhilaration of the climb, the danger of our precarious perch and the happiness of having good friends around me to share the experience. In my work I strive to convey a sense of place--of being. So now, I’ll paint, and in doing so will share that experience with everyone else. A gift to the people who will never get a chance to go there and a remembrance to the ones that have.
Stone Mountain Sentinel 12” x 20” Pastel Painting
The challenge to a painting like “Stone Mountain Sentinel” is capturing the tremendous distance on a flat piece of paper. I started with the sky, laying in the luminous Carolina Blue, accented by the warm colors near the horizon. Next came contrasting color temperatures, the cool blue next to the warm peach, in addition to illustrating the difference in color temperature, they are also complementary colors. I spice the painting with color, much as a cook does with spices, punching it up, giving it flavors.
The Wallis paper I use is museum quality and has a sanded surface. My pastels (Sennelier, Windsor-Newton or Unison) are also top of the line. Their rich glorious colors come from the same pigments as the colors in both watercolors and oil paints. French Ultramarine is the same deep blue in all three mediums. The pale chalky things that most people encountered in high school have as much in common with a serious artist’s pastels as a roller skate does with a Mercedes. My pastels are also very lightfast, so the paintings I do will stay vibrant for many a lifetime.
At the end I feel that this is a successful painting, but not because it meets with an artistic checklist of the design elements that a painting should have. When the viewer looks at this painting, they feel the stone, solid beneath them, the tree, fragile but anchored to life and the rock. The pine dances in the continual wind that shapes its existence. Looking past the tree, the drop-off is abrupt and the other mountains emerge in the distance.
For me the painting is a window to the sense-memory of that day.
Biography
Schelly Keefer’s artistic vision covers a wide variety of interests from classical landscapes to the dynamic power of movement and energy expressed by the power of the horse or the grace of ballroom dancing.
Pastels and watercolors are her favorite tools and her work has been recognized twice recognized in Pastel Journal. She has been featured on National Public Radio’s WFAE and local TV and is represented by the Red Sky Gallery http://www.redskygallery.com/html/artistresults.asp?artist=180 and she can be found on Facebook.
Sidebar: Stone Mountain State Park is located on 13,500 acres in Wilkes and Allegheny counties in North Carolina. Stone Mountain State Park shelters waterfalls, mountain streams, forests filled with wildlife, hiking trails and the historic Hutchinson family mountain homestead.
The park's trademark feature is Stone Mountain, a 600-foot granite dome. This upwelling of stone is part of a 25-square-mile pluton of igneous rock formed beneath the earth's surface by molten lava. Over the ages, wind, water and other forces have eroded the softer layers of rock atop the granite block and exposed the outcrop we see today. Rains continue to carve troughs in the granite as water runs down the mountain's sloping face.
The park was established in 1969 and later designated a National Natural Landmark. Long before becoming a state park, Stone Mountain was settled by families of English, German, Irish, French and Scotch-Irish descent who built the log homes, farms, mills, churches and schools in the area.
Sidebar 2
If camping isn’t your thing, there are some wonderful places to stay in the area. We stayed at The Homecoming Bed and Breakfast in nearby Elkin, NC. The home is a classic arts and crafts bungalow built by a dentist in 1923 with three suites for guests. It’s now run by Sam and Deborah Smith, kind folks who make a fine breakfast. http://www.homecominghouse.com/
