The fall of the year is a frustrating time for a landscape painter, being struck on all sides by flamboyant, extravagant, brazen beauty; brilliant leaf colors, vivid blue skies, wood smoke in the clear air - it is all too much in the same way that melodramatic sunsets are too much. Marvelous to see, but unsuccessful paintings abound. Everything is so intensely alive at this time of year that a painter becomes more aware of the limitations of art... painting it all is like attempting to paint life itself.

This watercolor is a record of one such mellow fall afternoon on a trout stream.

- Nita Engle