Small Water (Open Edition)

The Story

The Pied-billed Grebe is a small bird with an improbable skill: it can change its buoyancy at will, sinking slowly below the surface without a ripple, or riding high like a cork. Smith found this one riding high on a still woodland pond, surrounded by the broken reflections of bare branches and pale sky. The bird's cinnamon-buff flanks catch warm light, and the clean white ring on the bill that gives the species its name is visible against the gray. Below, its mirror image wavers in the surface. It is a study in stillness so complete it feels almost impossible — a photograph of a moment that wanted to be painted.

The Location

Pied-billed Grebes winter throughout the Chesapeake watershed on everything from large Bay tributaries to small woodland ponds and freshwater impoundments. They nest occasionally in larger freshwater marshes but are primarily winter visitors in the region, arriving in October and departing in April. Solitary and unobtrusive, they are more often detected by their odd, hollow call than by sight. Their ability to dive and disappear without warning has earned them the folk name "hell-diver" across much of their range.

Artist's Perspective

"This grebe sat on this pond for about ten minutes and barely moved. I was working the light on the reflection as much as on the bird itself. When both lined up — the bird still, the reflection clean — that was the frame I wanted." — Andre Smith

Curator's Recommendation

A meditative horizontal composition with a painterly quality that rewards close viewing. The warm tones of the bird against the cool reflected water give the piece visual balance and depth. Suited to quiet spaces — reading rooms, hallways, bedrooms — where it rewards repeated looking.

Print Quality

Archival-Quality Canvas, Made in the USA.

Every Chesapeake Focus print is produced on archival-grade poly-cotton canvas using UL GREENGUARD GOLD certified inks — water resistant, fade resistant, and anti-yellowing. Each canvas is hand-stretched over FSC-certified, kiln-dried stretcher bars that are knot-free and warp-free. Finished with your choice of hardwood floater frame in matte black, white, brown, or natural. Ready to hang right out of the box.