Light Dappled Hill

Most pictures in any medium are primarily the play of light on objects.  What makes them interesting to view is the dynamic quality of that light on that subject.  Sometimes the subject itself speaks to the viewer, sometimes it is a memory it triggers.  Other times, the lighting is the story.

Returning home from one of my trips to Big Bear in the winter months, I saw the sun striking the mountain as it began its descent for the evening.  This setting light illuminated the texture of the rocks, holding my attention, mesmerizing me.  This is a telling of that moment, when exhausted from a day of snowboarding I was shaken from my stupor into a clarifying moment of beauty.  Those moments often find us thinking about something else, lost in the future or past, and shock us back into the present moment, where we can truly feel and experience the profound nature of life as it is, now.

I wanted to express the texture of those rocks, as the present light would show them, but also the contrasting smooth quality of the snow laying over so much of the land at that time.