"Organized By Nature"

I recently visited the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve near Los Angeles and was very excited to see all the wildlife gathered there. This is a wonderful reserve, very well maintained and worth a visit. I came away with many reference photos. There is one place where you walk over a stream - and underneath the walkway was this amazing display of old and new reeds. They were going in all different directions yet they looked as though they had been purposely placed that way. A Great Egret was standing atop the mix, patiently fishing. The water was so black and there were so many reeds, I'm not sure what he was fishing for. What I liked most about this composition were all the drastic contrasts and the fact that the reeds were in an order organized by nature, not man.

Pastels on Black Strathmore Artagain paper.