Up the Creek

The original idea was to paint rocks underwater. I photographed lake and creek stones, and in looking at them was struck by the images of rushing water. I decided to combine the stones and waterfall, and treat it as life itself, diverted by powerful forces, a period of crisis through the waterfall, the boulders playing the immovable cause of this crisis. The water’s rapid change of form results in the beautiful clarity of the multicolored stones laid exposed gemlike facets of a personality. Everything becomes clear in the end. I started painting pebbles as a way to entering into the body of the painting. At one point they were finished, I added a sunlight glaze dapple, hated the effect and had to repaint all of the stones. I had intended the two side boulders to be more forceful, abstract, with edges and force pointing inward to the waterfall, but after several unsatisfactory design tries, I decided to go ahead and paint the waterfall. This came out so well that I didn’t want to ruin its effect by being too drastic with the boulders. The contrast of states was the original idea so I decided to leave the boulders smooth and realistic. I kept the water in the top of the picture dark, deep, slower flowing, so that the shock of the waterfall emphasized the water’s previous state, its adolescence, which rushes to the crises of maturing, and opens to serenity of age. Once the waterfall was painted with its dress form, the body seemed to be missing so I carried the veil of two arms and a head upstream and helped suggest movement. Once painted, the waterfall, to me, suggested a woman’s dress, a long gown, and that some proper placement of marks on the boulders could lean toward the waist and the knees of the gown. One planet like boulder could suggest the force of harmony, and the other boulder with its clawed fist suggest the force of destruction. Sybil and Charybdis? Green has a neutral place in this picture, some moss and a few plants. It helps hold down the real blackness underneath.