"Wow, these colors are amazing!  Just beautiful...keep making these!!"  N.Z.
 
Visiting the Adirondack Mountains in northeast New York State, I couldn’t help but compare them to the Catskill Mountains where I live…further south.  I noticed several differences.  First the mountains are higher and more peaked.  Second, the landscape was primarily forests made of conifer and deciduous trees like here but no green farmlands in the valleys.  Hiking was stunning amongst pines, huge boulders everywhere you go and waterfalls.  The whole region is filled with LOTS of water which shows up as huge lakes like Saranac Lake and Lake George, plus every size smaller ponds, marshes and bogs. There are so many they nearly connect they are so close together. 
 
The Adirondacks are 6 million acres worth of mountains with more than 100 peaks.  They are the only mountains in the eastern U.S. that aren't geologically part of the Appalachian mountain chain. They actually belong to a much older formation known to some as the Canadian Shield, a huge formation, underlying about half of Canada!
 
Another interesting fact is that they are RISING two millimeters a year! 
 
This was a complex image.  Red Oak leaves make up most of the mountain peaks with gray Coltsfoot and lighter Oak in the distance.  Adirondack valleys are forests and many appear as yellow surrounded by pines.  I wanted to reflect that here.  I also wanted the valley to have a texture like a forest canopy.  Yellowed Moss and green Moss served nicely.  I think the green leaf on the left is an elm with a disease!  Orange leaves, center, are a variety of rhododendron.    Gray rocks, foreground, are Coltsfoot.  Photoshop used a lot in this one!  More landscapes to come!
 
As leaves are biodegradable and will fade and deteriorate quickly, original Art is scanned immediately after creation, preserving their beauty long after originals are gone.   Enjoy!