“Splash ~ American Robin and Columbine,” an original painting copyright by Susan A. Walton.

Artist’s comment :

When flocks of robins returned to our place in spring they would often congregate in the valley floor where the earthworms were most abundant. A creek wandered through the musclewood trees there, and there were plenty of shallow areas in the stream in which the birds could bathe.

I used to spend a lot of time in the back forty while searching for interesting stones in the creek, mainly because it was where other people in the family seldom visited, so it was peaceful. And, being as far from the sounds of the distant highway as I could get, it was quiet enough there to hear even the shyest and most reclusive birds. There were interesting lichens to find, and it was the only place on the property where there were maidenhair ferns, a strange-looking fern that holds a marvelous circular, tiara-shaped array of fronds aloft on wire-thin, glossy black stems. There were also mosses of all kinds growing on all the trees and stones. One of my favorite species of moss would at times sport these bright orange appendages you see in the painting, which hold its spores. Columbine is a plant often seen with maidenhair ferns on the banks of creeks, and I enjoy the contrast between its delicate flowers and the rough rock.

It was always a treat to take a seat on a downed log in that back woods and wait until all the birds forget you are there, and come out to splash in this waterpark of theirs.

Unlike most of my acrylic paintings, this one also features a paint medium made with glass beads to simulate the texture of the rock and the way stone sometimes glitters. For added texture and fine black specks, I used a gel with added pumice, then came back in and painted lichens.