In the dead of winter, I saw these stems surrounded by the water. As brown as they were, I was still captivated by their shape and verticality against the horizontal flow of the river. The grouping of them created its own interesting shape for me.

As a fleeting experience, the dead of it was intriguing. As something to look at ongoingly I chose to lighten it up. The reality was much darker in general than it is in the painting. Sometimes, just as in life, we hold to the beauty transcending the difficulty or hardness. The same is true with art compositions.