East Fall Blue Ridge Mural - Street Murals by Catherine Twomey in Asheville

Winner of the 2010 ArtInPlace Competition, Charlottesville, Virginia. Now hanging along Barracks Road at Route 250, the mural is on aluminum and is 12' X 24'. The Blue Ridge mountains in the fall are simply gorgeous. It was one of those warmer fall days when you wake up and know the sun will be out all day; the sky a brilliant graduated tint of blue with a riot of roiling color below. We packed the car with relatives, dogs and cameras and headed up to Skyline Drive above Charlottesville. I don't know which was more memorable: the day or the friends, but quite possibly both. I knew I had to put what I'd seen and felt into oils. It's the layering of the mountains and colors that spoke to me. We stood on one of the overlooks to the east, taking in the folds and bumps of the earth. The Blue Ridge has a look all their own. The sweeping folds. The swaths of maples, birches and red oaks in their pre-winter dance. The intense blues softened by distance.