"I like to paint difficult things - like light reflections, what things look like underwater, individual blades of grass... it's fun for me to do. The changing reflections and change of palette between the rocks above the water and below the water are more subtle aspects of the image, beyond the obvious dynamic between the animals.

"At the beginning, I did experience this beautiful, slow-moving river with all the great reflections and colors and with rocks poking up out of the water. Then I thought, 'river otters would be great here.' So I put them on a pedestal-like rock. Finally, I felt the scene needed something more, so here comes the little turtle." - Stephen Lyman