Blog

Recently I had the good fortune to paint with a group of great artists in Northern Arizona at the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, also home to Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River. While walking the bank of the river I was struck by the clear green water as it flowed by. It reminded me of another one of my favorite places in the West, the Oxbow Bend of the Snake River, in Teton National Park which also has this beautiful green water. I realized that both areas share a common feature, a dam not too many miles upstream. The dams filter the sediments and for a few miles the water runs crystal clear, picking up the colors of the land, sky, and river bottom. Warm or cool, based on the season, light and time of day. Sometimes almost pure viridian and other times closer to blue or yellow-green. Truly fun waters to paint!

 

In the case of the Colorado, for most of it's course it is carrying a hefty amount of sediment and is more typically milky brown or green, parts of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, now mostly deposited in the basins of Lakes Powell and Mead. I have seen the Snake as both clear and clean and also more brown depending on the time of year and run rate. The west we live in is both natural and open and yet also touched by human hands, even in the most remote of locations. These scenes still remain wonderful and beautiful but they are different than they were 150 years ago. In the case of the rivers, they are the oasis of our lands (Wallace Stegner), nurturing us and our homes. In all cases, fragile and powerful at the same time, subject to the whims of nature, weakened by drought, powered and strengthened by the winter snows.