The previous day had been a typical warm, sunny summer day, but on this morning I awoke to find low flying clouds, and patches of cool fog scattered about the area where I was staying, in particular there was a heavy cloud formation that was hanging a few dozen feet 0ver the lake surface. The sun was obscured, as was the distant landscape in every direction I could see, while I was taking an early morning walk along one of the lake shore paths.
At the end of my walk, I went in for my breakfast, and as I was enjoying my last cup of coffee I looked out a window and saw that the clouds were lifting and on the move, heading slowly east across the lake and toward Vermont. By the time I got outside, a short while later, the cloud cover had lifted high enough that I could begin to discern the faint silhouette of the mountain ridge through the thinning clouds. The resulting shapes, subtle color and values I saw were interesting enough to me that I hurried back to where I was staying to get my painting gear and a canvas.
I painted this piece from the upper level porch of the Boat House at Silver Bay, on Lake George, in the Eastern Adirondacks, looking southeast toward Slim Point and the Odell Islands. By the time I was set-up to paint, the view had changed significantly, the clouds had lifted higher and exposed parts of the ridge of the mountains across the lake. While painting quickly in order to capture as much of the scene as possible before the clouds had completely disappeared, the higher cloud levels moved easily up over the tree covered ridges, but the remaining lower clouds slowly shifted their way up along the mountain sides, following the contour of the slopes. While painting and observing this natural phenomenon it occurred to me that the setting looked as if the mountains were draped in soft white wool shawls, as the clouds and fog were lifting.