stephanie thomas berry

This painting was started four years ago after two tropical storms swept through the Southern Appalachians. The night that the first storm came through we walked along the road and listened to the booming crack of boulders being rolled downstream by the force of the raging waters. After the flood waters had receded from both storms I went for a walk on our Riverland, and was dismayed to see that a log jam had caused creekstones to pile up where Rock Creek joins the South Toe River, to such an extent that the creek was now flowing in a completely different course, across a section of river bottomland that is filled with wildflowers in the Spring and Summer. Determined to save the bottomland from erosion, I began to move the stones that were blocking the natural course of the creek, one by one. After a solid afternoon’s work, I had made significant headway in restoring the creek to its natural path.

This painting is of a maple tree that stood in the middle of the field of stones that the creek dumped there during the floods. It had been pushed by the force of waters, and was leaning in the direction of the creek, which it had not done before. I took several photographs of it, and started this painting shortly thereafter. But I put it aside and did not pick it up again, until a friend saw it while visiting my studio. She urged me to finish it. So I picked it up and started working on it again.

This painting is titled “Forgiveness” for a very specific reason. As I started working on it again, I began to dwell on a negative incident that had occurred when I originally began the painting. I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Something about the field of stones, the surrendering of leaves, and the dawning day that I was painting helped me to concentrate on forgiveness. By the time the painting was done, I felt clean and released from resentment, just as the creek and river were cleaner than they had been in decades after those storms, swept clean of debris, the water radiant and crystalline.

This painting is available as a print in a limited edition of 200. It measures 13 x 19 inches, and the actual printed image is approx. 11 x 15.5 inches. It is signed, titled, & numbered by me, and will be mailed in a tube.

Forgiveness Limited Edition Print
$35.00

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