“Water is the driving force of all nature”
— Leonardo da Vinci
Down by Swift Creek, BC, Canada//Brushpen, watercolour//
This spread with a sketch, and words, was one of the last of the journey, and the sketch was made after finishing the Western Wildlands Route, somewhere in British Columbia, Canada. As Geert was sketching this, a few metres down from my camp, he kept on thinking that he would, could, and maybe should, never hear a grizzly approaching. That was a bit freaky. He had his bear spray and a large knife laying next to his art materials. He wasn’t sure it would have helped.
Wherever Geert camped on the Western Wildlands route, he was always dictated by the availability of a water source. Sometimes he would fill water at a cattle trough, or in a small town, then ride out with all his water containers filled until he found a camp. The water out of ‘Russell Tank Lake’ tasted as bad as its colour. But after filtering, it would have to do”/Arizona//Pen & ink, watercolour//
Looking down into Strawberry Lake/Utah//Fineliner, watercolour//
But when he rode in the North, water wasn’t an issue anymore. It was everywhere. Magnificent lakes, fast streaming creeks, and rivers and melting snow run-offs in the high mountains in Utah made him a lot more relaxed.
This sketch was made under a wooden bridge with occasional cars driving over it. Geert camped for a few days at ‘Hidden Creek’ in the Idaho forests and produced a lot of work”//Brushpen, watercolour//
Sawyer water filtering system//Digital//