The River Year
Private collection · River and marsh · 2024- Medium
- Oil
- Support
- Linen and oak panel
- Sizes
- 50 × 70 cm to 60 × 90 cm
- Painted
- October 2023 to August 2024
- Commission
- A private collector, Fellside
- Available
- Not for sale
A collector asked for one river, four times. Same water, same year, a different season in each frame.
The river runs past the collector’s house in the hills above Fellside. She grew up on it and wanted the whole year on one wall.
We agreed on four visits, one each season, three days each. I painted on site in the mornings and in a borrowed barn in the afternoons.
Winter was the hardest. The paint on the palette went stiff in the cold, and the snow kept changing color with the clouds.
The first visit. The maples were at their peak and the mountain had its first snow.
Three days at minus eight. The river never froze, but the brushes did.
High water after the thaw, and clouds that changed every ten minutes.
Plates 04 The River Year · 2024
Snow is never white in a painting. Here it is blue gray in the shadow and a warm cream where the sun hits. The only pure white on the canvas is one stroke on the water.
- Visits
- Four, three days each
- Studio
- A borrowed barn
“I see the four of them every morning. They tell me what month it is better than the calendar.”
Four canvases from the studio wall.
The River Year · Oil on linen · 2024-
01 River, October -
02 River, January -
03 River, May -
04 River, August
One painter, one studio, the river year.
Full credits
Behind the series
- Painted by
- Odile Marrow
- Commissioned by
- A private collector, Fellside
- Barn
- Lent by the Okafor family
- Frames
- Ashby and Rowe, Wrenhaven
- Shown by
- Private collection
And the river, which kept moving.