Return to the Crow River - 20" x 50"
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With 'Return to the Crow River', I get to recall that perfect July morning. We were camped at a great site on Little Crow Lake, overlooking a small island that was home to a nesting pair of Loons. As was our habit, we were in the canoe before sunrise, paddling back toward Proulx Lake through the meandering, mist-shrouded tamarack bog that constitutes the Crow River along there. The heavy dew turned spider webs into diamond necklaces. The mist was so thick in one place that we could actually see a small rainbow suspended over the cattails. Swamp Sparrows, Yellow-throat Warblers and Olive-sided Flycatchers were most noticeable among the chorus of birds that serenaded us. Occasionally, we would deftly turn another bend in the river only to scare up a couple of Wood Ducks that would explode off the still water with a whir of wings and their familiar, whines of distress. Some duck species, like Common Mergansers, will try to scurry away, but the 'puddle ducks' (Wood Ducks, Mallards, Blue-wing Teal) prefer to explode straight up, into the air. Wood Ducks like to muddle quietly among weeds and grasses at the water's edge, feeding on surface vegetation, and we don't usually notice them before they notice us. When they decide to make their discordant exit, they tend to startle us as much as we did them. |
Looking at my paintings always takes me back to the moment when I
photographed the scene that inspired the painting. I always tell people
that one of the special aspects of producing my art is the fact that
while doing the painting, I get to re-visit that spot as I remember it --
to remember the specific canoe trip, the specific time of day, and
maybe even specific sensory experiences like the warmth of the sun, the
chill of the mist, the smell of pine needles underfoot, or the plaintive
call of a nearby Hermit Thrush.