22 x 15"
Watercolor on Saunders Waterford paper
Back in 2014 on my second outing ever with Kathie Odom’s plein aire group, she led us to Metcalfe Bottoms in the Smokies. Her excitement was contagious, but there were none of the broad, expansive views I love to paint, “just” the river and trees. Lots of trees. Welcome to the forests ofTennessee! It didn’t take me long to figure out that I’d have to go for small and intimate. If I thought it would be easy, though, I was in for a surprise. There is a moody depth to the rivers here unlike the lakes and streams of the American west; it took me time to grow into it and appreciate it properly. Here is that painting two years later, finished at last. I will never again see or paint water quite the way I used to. And that’s a good thing.
