Albion Dam Plein Air Painting
12″ x 16“, Oil on Canvas, Painted August 30, 2017
Albion Dam, Blackstone River, Lincoln, RI
by Charles C. Clear III
The Albion Dam and Waterfall are on the historic Blackstone River in Albion, which is an old mill village in Lincoln, Rhode Island. Now most of the mills have been turned into condominiums, and a bike path runs along the River through a good portion of the area.
On the afternoon of August 30th, 2017, I parked in the lot of the Blackstone Valley Bikeway in Albion, grabbed my easel and my bag, and started walking north on the bike path. Within fifty feet I could hear the roar of the waterfall, so I climbed down a small steep path that let to the river. The scene was beautiful: Just an endless cascade of white water rushing over the black onyx colored dam; then turning calmer and changing color as it flowed away from the Falls. Rocks of all shapes and sizes were sprinkled across the River; their colors ranged from Payne’s Grey to Yellow Ochre, with a symphony of Umber in between. Behind the dam lush green trees lined the riverbank in all their summer splendor, and overhead white puffy clouds were rising in a pastel blue sky.
I set up my easel on the riverbank and began the painting with a quick charcoal sketch. I painted the sky and clouds first and used the same colors for the foundation of the River. Then I filled in the trees and added the rocks down below. The final piece of the puzzle was to paint the water in the River, and that proved to be the most challenging. It was hard to tell just what color it was. It seemed to be somewhere between blue, grey, and purple, and it also seemed to change every time I looked at it. I soon found a color that satisfied me, and ran my palette knife sideways to suggest the flow of the water.
Contact me if you would like to purchase this painting.
Charles C. Clear III
cc@oceanstateart.com