Pedernales Falls at Dusk

So this was the first painting that I remember using proper oils, probably the "Grumbacher" brand if memory serves. The date on the signature says '93 so I was about 16 and I distinctly remember being amazed at the texture of oils, how you could mix thinner oils and paint directly over a thicker wet mix as though it were dry. The sunset is very thin, probably mixed with turpentine instead of oil or medium, because when you look at the original the texture of the canvas really shines through. The lightest orange, however, right where the lad is standing in the middle was mixed with white to produce the gradient and so is thicker, and the canvas does not show through. This painting is on one of those canvas boards which was a new product at the time, canvas wrapped around cardboard. I used black I suppose, whereas nowadays I almost never do.

This was a rather fast painting. I don't think it took more than three evenings to paint it. I was inspired from a camping trip to Pedernales Falls, a state park in Central Texas. My buddies (clockwise starting with the one in the tree) are: Dave Taylor, Brian McKinsey, Richard Harris, Jeff Borcherding, and the cool one with the backback and the bandana with his leg dangling over the edge is me. I'm pretty sure I still have some photos from that trip, physical ones, back before digitals existed and you still took your 35mm 100 speed daylight rolls to HEB to be developed. I will dig around for them the next time I get back to the States at my folks house.

Hope some of the guys sign-in and post some of their own memories of that trip in the comments below. I do remember this cool pool which was part of a stream there where we went swimming and where I saw wild leaches for the first time. And jumping around the rocks. It was the first trip where I got to drive without my mom and dad, so I was definately 16 and had just got my license. I think they had a minivan at the time, though I can't picture which one it was. Probably the white one with the foot-wide wood panel print that ran along the side.