Tall river bluffs and mature Cottonwoods run along both sides of the tracks, forming a deep channel that highlights it's course.  A thin blanket of snow had fallen overnight and lingered a while on the morning of my visit (December 27, 2011).  The snow provided additional variety of color and shape for the composition.  It was a very clear and bright morning, and shadows stretched from the Cottonwoods to the tracks. 

My primary goal for this piece was to depict the visual affect of this train path.  As with all of my paintings, my approach is to focus strongly on capturing the beauty of form and color of the four or five large masses in the compostion.