A Question of Balance

Original 24" x 30"

In the summer of 2004, my wife and I spent some time in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee with our oldest daughter, her family, and our youngest daughter who was attending UNC Charlotte. We rented a cabin in the mountains overlooking Watauga Lake. One day we rented a pontoon boat and spent most of the day observing the life around the wilderness shoreline of the lake. We followed this Egret from cove to cove for a while watching him balance, precariously sometimes, on half submerged logs. At one point he provided some comic relief by slipping and falling off the log into the water, but I chose not to embarrass him by using that image for my painting. The title, however, does not refer solely to the Egret. I was also captivated by the balance of sunlight and shadow throughout the scene, especially in the riffles and reflections in the water.