Wet Paint! Tunnel Brook

Van Gogh once said “If you love nature then you see beauty everywhere”. This quote sticks with me. I can’t drive down the street without spotting some picturesque beauty hidden in the mundane. I have plenty worries in life but running out of subject material has never remotely been one of them.

2026 has been a miracle winter in terms of the abundant blanket of snow across the coast. Given these pieces take months to dry I really should start working in the direction of spring. But the magic of the snow, how it transforms the landscape continually demands my attention.

Tunnel brook is a modest forgettable trail in Benton NH in the west side of the white mountains. It doesn’t go anywhere terribly remarkable. It follows a stream from a dirt road up to a series of ponds overshadowed by Mt Moosilauke.

On my last day of employment with the forest service in the early 2000s I was graciously granted the official adopter of this trail. Several times I’ve headed up this way to clean drainage ditches, cut back encroaching shrubs and thorns and drop debris on spur trails so folks don’t get lost. The bugs up there are quite fierce. The water is freezing year round. Yet the canopy of trees looming over the brook gives a sense of coziness and tranquility to this modest walk in the woods. I always assumed it was called “tunnel brook” referring to the year round canopy of trees arching over the bubbling stream.

The lines in the ripples are a blur between water ripples and canopy reflections. This is a square painting, 24”. 2” deep canvas. Underpainting of orange, peach, violet. Available for sale coming late March.