Artwork description:

Oceans and seas, lakes and ponds, rivers and streams, brooks and creeks — which are most accessible and which are not? Sometimes the getting to, the journey, what you encounter in route to a remote, unblemished fishing spot, that is the most luring and rewarding. This linocut is from the Pecos series. It’s hard to visually navigate through the piece to see the flicker of a small creek. I enjoy fishing small brooks where the fresh spring feeds the waterfalls down into small pools. The water gathers itself, then returns to its onward tumble toward a larger body of water.

Working with a Royal Coachmen Dry #16 fly, you enter the brook and cast up into the riffles and small waterfalls, letting your offering drift into the pools on either side of you. Then you move up stream gathering small brook trout on your way. Creeks are in between, slower and more gentle, quietly making a soft gurgling sound as they slide along on a downward path. You hear it before you see it, making its location more about suggesting its directional location, its whereabouts. This print, First Meadow, was included in The 6th American Print Biennial 2006, University of Richmond Museums, Richmond, Virginia. It was purchased by the museum for their Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center. When the edition process was complete, instead of x-ing out the block, I gifted it to the museum so students could see and feel the lines and marks that created the impression.

I would be visiting another artist. In our discussion regarding compositional problem solving, I often suggest turning the painting upside down then leaving the studio. Upon return, the painting often reveals something fresh and corrections can be applied. First Meadow is a good example of looking at something difficult and seeing defining edges, subtle shifting between near and far, and a shallow space full of visual obstacles. But there is a sense of solitude upon arrival, of being safe and protected in nature’s canopy.

Out west we use a Royal Wulff as our fancy fly when fishing mountain brooks and streams.

Materials used:

Daniel Smith Traditional Black Relief Ink on Zerkall Book Smooth Cream over Somerset Satin White 250gm

Tags:

#nature #waterfall #spring #american #remote #fallen #wilderness #journey #creek #season #unblemished #navigable river #reward