Acrylic on white canvas, 30 × 40 inches
Mountain Stream grew from years spent traveling throughout the United States while helping support wildland fire and incident management organizations. Those experiences often led into remote forests, mountain valleys, and river corridors where work and landscape became inseparable.
I remember standing beside streams like this one and thinking about returning someday—not for work, but simply to experience the place differently. As a fly fisherman, I often found myself saying, “I can’t wait to come back here and get a line wet.” The landscape became associated not only with the present moment but with a future possibility.
This painting explores that intersection of memory, anticipation, and place. Water moves continuously through the composition while the surrounding forest remains rooted and still. Together they create a rhythm that feels both active and contemplative.
Shortly after completion, the original painting was acquired by a collector. The sale played an important role in supporting my continued development as an artist. While the original now lives elsewhere, the experience that inspired it remains—an enduring reminder of wild places, flowing water, and the journeys that shape us.