“Time On the River”

“Time On the River”
Pencil, pastel, & drybrush
2023

Like any number of other artists, writers, film-makers, etcetera?…. I occasionally do one “for me”, and I’m utterly unconcerned about whether anybody even notices (much less buys) the piece.
This is one of those pieces. The originating photographs were taken (by my pal, Em Chitty) on the Tennessee River, below Knoxville….far away from Boston or West Point/Annapolis. I like (and know full-well) that markedly un-sublime landscape…muddy shores that are still overflown at least twice per year, with a raggedy line of trees still retaining the bank of the river.
But isn’t this marvelous?….to look up and suddenly see a man silently sculling down the river, where NOBODY does this sort of thing?
It’s a markedly quiet (and small) picture. For me, it just pulses with “I want to know your story, Mister…”