What the Waters Remember

What the Waters Remember moves through layered passages of deep teal, mineral green, translucent aqua, weathered blue and quiet earth tones. Beneath the darker surface, lighter colours seem to rise and recede, creating the sensation of looking not simply at water, but into it—toward something held beneath what can immediately be seen.

The painting carries the weathered beauty of wabi-sabi. Scraped surfaces, broken edges and partially revealed layers suggest that what has passed is never entirely lost. Traces remain. Colour settles into colour. What appears to have disappeared continues quietly beneath the surface.

There is no single source of light and no fixed destination for the eye. Instead, pale aqua and turquoise passages emerge gently from deeper greens and blues, while touches of ochre and earth provide a sense of age and grounding. The painting seems simultaneously fluid and ancient—as though water and stone have been in conversation for a very long time.

The title, What the Waters Remember, speaks to the mystery of places that seem to hold something of all that has passed through them: movement, touch, prayer, silence, perhaps even memory itself.

We may never know what the waters remember.

But sometimes, in their presence, we remember something too.

Oil and cold wax on canvas
Original painting by Jhadten Jewall 8″x10″ on canvas board $125 unframed

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