Natural Bridge Solstice

This studio landscape painting of The Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County, Virginia is the result of five years of study, completed February 2024. A photo I took in December 2016 is the reference for this painting. The Natural Bridge was a sacred site of the Native American Monacan tribe. In 1742, a frontiersman named John Howard was commissioned by Governor William Gooch to explore the southwest of Virginia as far as the Mississippi River. The party followed Cedar Creek through the Natural Bridge, then floated in boats down the New, Coal, Kanawha, and Ohio rivers to the Mississippi. It is alleged that George Washington also came to the site in 1750 as a young surveyor. In 1774, Thomas Jefferson purchased 157 acres of land including the Natural Bridge from King George III of Great Britain. He called it "the most Sublime of nature's works." Natural Bridge became one of the tourist attractions of the new world that Europeans visited during the 18th and 19th centuries. It is now owned by the State of Virginia.