Fire River

Acrylic Painting 16" x 20"

When I was a youth, my dad was invited to be the guest speaker at a retreat in the Colorado Rocky Mountains for a week. Lucky for me, he got to bring the whole family with him. The director of the camp learned from my parents that I had a healthy dose of Wanderlust, so he sat me down and gave me two ground rules for my time there on the mountain:

1. I must always stick to the trails and not leave the worn mountain paths.

2. Don’t drink from the stream down-river of the horses. (VERY sound advice!)

Other than that, I was a free kid. I spent my days exploring the mountain paths that followed the river around camp, and my evenings playing foosball with my twin brother and the adult guests. As far as I was concerned, this was my slice of heaven. That trip was the first time I ever encountered the perfection of crystal clear, rushing mountain waters that reflect the purest of blues. It was also when I knew that I would someday call Colorado “home”.

If all you know as a child are the murky waters of the midwest, clear mountain rivers are a revelation. Perspective is everything—up close, clear waters reveal worn river rock and the occasional darting fish. Further out, reflected skies create every kind of jewel-toned blue and green imaginable in the rushing currents and eddies. As the waters pass from mountain forests to more open areas, orange, red and gold reeds rise from the banks, reflecting like streaks of fire in the snow-fed waters…and the SOUND!!!! Rocky Mountain rivers make music that is entirely their own, unlike any other body of water I have ever heard. Unlike so much of my work, Fire River I isn’t the result of one single view. It is the culmination of four decades of my deep love and awe for mountain waters, combined into one spectacular painting.