Journey Way Point
"MISSOURI BREAKS"
This is one of ten dams over a 10 mile stretch of the Missouri River in the Great Falls, MT area. Named the Ryan Dam, it was built in 1915. It's falls are now 148 feet high. Its annual power generation was over 441 mega-watt hours in 1990. The main flow of the Missouri is on the bottom left of the above photo. To the center right is the tailrace from the power generating plant. The tailrace outlet is the part of the river shown in the painting, just before it rejoins the main flow (seen entering the painting from the right).
It was a hot, humid day in June, 2009 when the photo to the right was taken. The painting was done with a vertical format, cropping a bit from each side of the photo. This was done to emphasize the height of the cliffs.
That day the sky was gray, so a more pleasing version was painted. The background hillside's darker value was lightened, pushing it back and allowing the cliffs to better stand out. Additional foreground was added to show more water at the bottom to give better balance to the painting. The rapids were washed out in the photo, so it was manipulated to show more detail (which severely darkened everything else). Finally, the rock partially fallen into the river was given an exaggerated tint of light orange to draw the viewers eye into the scene.
It took a long time to paint this scene, but doing so was a pleasure. This was the first time I had tackled water with reflections and ripples as a major part of a painting and I am pleased with how it turned out.
Oil on Canvas Panel - 20 x 16 inches
Last Update: 05/31/2025
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