Fifty Waterfalls

Upon retirement from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, my wife and I moved back to Minnesota where I had done my undergraduate and graduate studies.  Once established in my studio, I began a series of paintings that allowed me, once again, to embrace the beauty of northern Minnesota with its wealth of trees, rocks, and water.  Shortly, I initiated a series of paintings that focused on the more than thirty waterfalls that cascade off the high land into the waters of Lake Superior.

While working on paintings of the North Shore of Lake Superior, I became curious about waterfalls in other states and the project of painting a waterfall from each of the fifty states quickly emerged.  The project involved approximately three years of visiting the sites in each of the states, photographing the waterfalls and then returning to the studio to create the paintings.  Once again, as I had discovered in Minnesota, I was able to explore the wealth of visual delight  I discovered in the texture and pattern of the rocks that had been scoured and shaped by the rushing waters at other times.

Friends and relatives have been questioning me about my next project.  I can only say “wait and see” -DR