Water is hard

It seems like a good fit that Ken Waterstreet is so drawn to water.

He says he began painting his namesake—river scenes and abstract glances of the liquid rushing over river rock, refracting light in every which way—in the early 2000s. Water, being translucent and reflective, is infamously hard to paint, but Waterstreet makes it look effortless. His hyperrealistic style is sharp and clear, and the uninitiated casual viewer may mistake them for photographs.

Waterstreet says he has spent “untold hours standing in rivers and streams in usually remote and beautiful places,” and likens it to a metaphor for life, and a meditation that he hopes to transport the viewer to experience. His latest work of paintings and colored pencil drawings is Liquid Therapy at Elliott Fouts Gallery.