10.10.2017

minnehaha creek

Clouds over the Creek; casein on board; 8" x 10"
 
Longfellow wrote of Minnehaha - the lover of Hiawatha - in his epic poem: The Song of Hiawatha.  It's a tale that tells of the tragic love between an Ojibwe warrior and a Dakota maiden.  Early on, the poem sets the stage and relates how Hiawatha came to be born (his mother was seduced by the West Wind.)  Later, there are adventures to be had by the young warrior until finally he meets and falls in love with Minnehaha.  But there's still time later in the poem for him to kill the evil magician, Pearl-Feather, invent written language, discover corn, and accomplish many other feats.  Minnehaha's tragic death during a severe winter fits well with the setting - the South shore of Lake Superior.
 
The creek above is Minnehaha Creek in Minnetonka where I live.  It's 22 miles long and flows east from Lake Minnetonka to the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.  There's a beautiful waterfall near its mouth - an amazing sight when frozen in the winter.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Smoke clouds on the deep purple water? Isn't that a song or is dementia setting in?

Mary Klein said...

Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple

Unknown said...

Oh.

Unknown said...

...great color contrast, makes those beautiful clouds in the distance jump out!

Mary Klein said...

Thanks, David!

The photo reference came from drone footage of the area. When I paint on site, I'm nearly at eye level to the cat tail tops because the land is so marshy and flat. As a result, you can't get the perspective to understand the flow of the creek as well. The drone footage solves that problem and offers a lot of other possibilities for my painting too.

This may be the start of a series - I'm not sure yet. I've been working on my website and adding some of the highlights of my 100-painting Reboot under the "2017 caseins" heading. I keep going back there to glean some wisdom that will head me in the right way.

I have 24 more paintings to go. That's still a lot of time for all of this to congeal.

Thanks again for your kind comments.

Unknown said...

Always