murray river ...

[jmax]

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/05-Oct-2007/84736-murray.jpg
acrylic on canvas 16" x 12"

A half hour sketch of an old photo of the murray river which due
to monumental human stupidity is now reduced to next
to nothing. It was a nice place.

This was also on an old painting holding the brush differently
than what I was used to again. and just using a very limited
pallette.

[E.Milz]

I love it! Great painting!!!
cheers
Eckhardt

[dsimons]

nice play with the warm and cool notes, nice work

[briansimons]

Lovely, moody colours here! Brian

[onefinepint]

Very nice job on the reflections, too. :thumbsup:

[digitalis]

I like this one Jmax! - your colours are working very effectively

[birdhs]

This has a ghostly feeling, as if it is the memory of the river, and from the story you weave, perhaps this is the way you intended it. it pleaseth thine eyes

[Kerch]

I like it too. The touches of purple are interesting.

[jmax]

thanks all, much appreciated ... alas, the murray river - which in US terms is like the missisipi but way smaller ... tis Australia's major river system, is no more but a memory ... just blue algae now or non existent. An environmental disaster of profound proportions and about which our fearless leader has done nothing whatsoever to alleviate.

[the drover's dog]

I've stumbled across this thread a couple of times in the past years and everytime I see it I froth with anger. jmax doesn't know what he's talking about. He is mouthing green extremist propaganda. I doubt if he has ever set eyes on the actual river whose fate he bemoans. He lives hundreds and hundreds of kilometres north of the Murray River. In his sub-tropical climate he has no idea of the natural seasonal ebb and flow of our dry inland waterways. Nor does he understand that extended periods of drought are a fact in the natural cycle of these waterways.

Before European settlement of Australia, the Murray River flooded some years and then for ten years or more was nothing more than a string of salty ponds. Now there is a steady flow down this river all year, every year thanks to controlling reservoirs upstream.

I live just a few kilometres from the Murray River. It is still a beautiful, free flowing river of fresh, non-salty water. If you want to see the Murray River as it looks now, then just go to the image gallery and do a search for Australia, Murray River. I posted a few pics of paddle steamers there which were taken after the driest 10 years on record. We are still in the grip of this same drought which is now in its fourteenth year. Things are very grim for farmers who rely on irrigation waters supplied from the river as they have not received their water allocations for many years now. The health of the river comes before the demands of irrigators and a steady environmental flow is ensured far more reliably than it ever was before mankind took a hand in controlling our liquid gold.

[bchlvr]

Very nice!

[viking57]

Hi John,
This is very nice! I like the soft transitions from tree to tree as they recede...very nice painting John....frame this puppy!
Ron