Hawks' Nest 9x12

I'm sorry to say that I did not paint this on location but from a photo, which is just not the same. I downloaded this pic two years ago before I ever seriously considered relocating to WV. Now, I'm an hour's drive from this place. In October, if all goes as planned, I will paint on location for two days in Hawk's Nest State Park, and I am pumped! The challenge here, as with all photographs, is that in a photo the values are flat, and the colors are not accurate. Simply put, photographs do not tell the whole truth.  However, if a photo is all one has, one works with resources available and tries to compensate. The distance across the river expanse with difficult to capture. Thus, I kept increasing the blue in the mountain and trying to lighten the foliage to give the appearance of atmosphere and distance between the foreground and background mountain. This 9x13 will have to do until I'm there. Until then, I consider this practice.