Waterfall Wednesday: Aunt Sarah’s Falls

This week’s featured waterfall is Aunt Sarah’s Falls. This waterfall made me fall in love with waterfalls in the wintertime. I was entranced by the different shapes and textures of the ice and the way that the water and ice had an aqua color at certain angles.

Aunt Sarah’s Falls is located in Montour Falls, New York near Watkins Glen. There’s actually an old town border marker just to the side of the falls (at first sight it kind of looks like a grave marker). The waterfall can be seen along Route 14 but can also be easily missed with the increased speed of the roadway. There’s a parking area located just across the street from the falls but with fast traffic coming around the bend it’s important to really be careful crossing.

Aunt Sarah’s Falls is a 90 foot waterfall – or at least this is what the visible portion measures. I found out while researching that above the visible portion of the waterfall, there are roughly 120 more feet of cascades that are not accessible to the public. (Seems like a job made for a drone.)

Aunt Sarah’s Falls has a unique shape compared to other waterfalls. The waterfall starts as a ribbon cascade at the top, however a third of the way down it hits a ledge and fans into a wider waterfall.

Also, I just noticed that you can see the town marker in the bottom right corner of this photograph.

When the water is really flowing the water can be very loud and sometimes the water splashes vehicles driving by.

This video was taken in mid-March when the snow was starting to melt a little bit.

Painting Aunt Sarah's Falls

Painting Aunt Sarah’s Falls was so much fun. This was the first waterfall that I painted as a winter scene. The colors where so much more muted and neutral compared to the other waterfalls that I had painted prior to this – this may be one of the only paintings of the series that doesn’t have green in it. It was a challenge to paint the bare hillside and make the colors realistic but still interesting. The resulting painting is one of my favorites from my recent series of 50 New York Waterfalls.

Aunt Sarah’s Falls is currently on display as part of the Waterfalls of the Finger Lakes solo exhibition at First Heritage Federal Credit Union in Corning. This show features nine of my favorite waterfalls from my recent project of 50. The show will be coming to a close next week on December 14th. Be sure to view it in person if you can. Each of the pieces is available to purchase (art always makes a great gift to anyone, even yourself) through the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

Let me know if you’ve seen Aunt Sarah’s Falls in person or if you’ve gotten a chance to see the show. I can’t believe how fast the months since installation have flown by.