Otherworldly beauty
Kathleen Hudson, Winding Road, oil, 12 x 16.
This story was featured in the July 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
Some paintings are just meant to be, even in a daunting race against time. Kathleen Hudson knows this well. Before heading to the Plein Air Rockies event last year, she researched potential sites to paint near Estes Park, CO, and chose Timberline Falls. It would require a rigorous alpine hike, but that didn’t deter the artist, who has been painting en plein airsince she was a child and who had, during college, led backpacking trips through New Hampshire’s White Mountains. As for waterfalls, Hudson would happily paint them all if she could. One of her favorites is Cumberland Falls, not far from her home in Lexington, KY. “Most falls are in ravines, and many have significant tree cover,” she says. “Timberline is way out in the open and partway up a mountain. It’s the point at which water begins to flow from Sky Pond down to the Loch below. This means it’s in full light for much of the day, and it just glows.”