"Mystic Morning"

Mystic Morning: Beauty, Connection, and a Lake in Need of Care

“Mystic Morning” perfectly describes my experience painting at Lake Needwood, just a few miles from my Maryland home.

In the quiet hours after dawn, a gentle mist softened the distant shoreline. The rising sun filtered through the trees, illuminating the grasses along the water’s edge and turning the lake into a tapestry of shimmering greens, blues, and lavender. The water glittered like diamonds—an elusive effect I worked especially hard to capture on canvas.

A graceful tree leans over the lake in the foreground of the painting, framing the scene and inviting the viewer into it. Beyond it, a small island glows with warm earth tones, while the distant hills and trees seem to dissolve into the morning atmosphere. A tiny structure peeks through the foliage, offering a quiet reminder that people, wildlife, and nature all share this beautiful place.

Canada geese, eagles, kingfishers, ducks, and many other birds call Lake Needwood home. In the early morning mist, I often heard them before I saw them. Fish occasionally broke the surface with a plop, sending ripples across the otherwise still water. Frogs, turtles, and snakes also kept me company along the shoreline—although the snakes were only barely tolerated!

I have spent many hours at Lake Needwood hiking, observing wildlife, connecting with nature, and creating art inspired by its serene beauty. During the pandemic, when so many of us sought relief from the monotony and isolation of staying home, our local parks became especially precious places of refuge.

Lake Needwood became the second stop in my Flow Series, a collection of paintings exploring the way water connects our individual backyards to local streams, lakes, rivers, and, eventually, the ocean.

When heavy rain falls at my home, the water flows from my backyard into Rock Creek and eventually reaches Lake Needwood as stormwater runoff. That same flow can carry discarded trash, lawn chemicals, fertilizers, and other pollutants into the lake. Evidence of this is sometimes visible along the hiking trails and shoreline.

If each of us takes a little more care—and perhaps picks up an unsightly piece of trash when we see one—we can help protect the waterways we love. Otherwise, that litter may continue downstream and ultimately find its way to the ocean.

Okay, lecture over! Well…at least for a moment.

Lake Needwood is a man-made lake created in 1965 by damming Rock Creek. It was designed to help control flooding, reduce soil erosion, and retain sediment carried by stormwater before cleaner water flows back into Rock Creek.

Increased rainfall and more severe storms can place additional strain on places like Lake Needwood. Heavy rain contributes not only to flooding and polluted runoff, but also to saturated soil that can make trees more vulnerable to falling.

I witnessed that danger firsthand while I was being filmed painting beside the lake. We suddenly heard an enormous crash just a few yards away. As we watched in disbelief, a huge tree came tumbling down—and the entire event was caught on video! It was the third time I had heard a tree fall while visiting one of our parks, but the first time I was close enough to see it happen.

Yikes!

Despite that unexpected excitement, Lake Needwood is usually an idyllic place. Fishermen cast their lines from the banks, families explore the trails, and visitors pause to enjoy the water. Trout, bass, catfish, and bluegill can all be found in the lake, although anyone keeping fish should follow current local health and consumption advisories. In other words, no lakeside sushi, please!

The lake has also experienced blooms of blue-green algae, which can produce microcystin, a toxin that is harmful to both humans and animals. Signs warn visitors not to enter the water during these blooms, yet people sometimes still wade in or toss sticks into the lake for their dogs to retrieve. Warm water, sunlight, excess nutrients, and polluted stormwater runoff can all contribute to harmful algae growth.

There is an interesting contrast here. My painting captures Lake Needwood as a peaceful, mystical sanctuary—and that beauty is absolutely real. But the lake is also a fragile living ecosystem that needs our attention and protection.

That tension between beauty and vulnerability lies at the heart of my Flow Series. I want my paintings to inspire people to pause and appreciate the natural world, while also recognizing that even the most serene landscape is affected by the choices we make upstream.

We can all take small steps to help keep our local waterways clean: avoid littering, reduce the use of chemicals on our lawns and gardens, recycle, compost, and pick up trash when we encounter it. One thoughtful action at a time, we can help protect the interconnected ecosystems flowing from our neighborhoods to our streams, lakes, rivers, and oceans.

Most of all, smile when you visit the lake—or when you look at my painting—because both are beautiful.

Now, go take a hike!