Juanita Bellavance, The journey begins, From the Chestatee River portfolio, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

The way it started was I had been going for walks at a nearby creek and took photos and videos to hear the sounds at home. Then I got the idea of making abstract paintings inspired by the creek. After a while, I wanted a larger variety of content from which to choose so I decided to go to a nearby river, The Chestatee, in Dahlonega, GA.

As I walked along the Chestatee River's edge for the first time on January 14, at 3:00 PM, I took almost one thousand pictures. I was intrigued by everything I saw. As the Chestatee is a calmly flowing river, it reminded me of the first time I went tubing on the Chattahoochee River on weekends during summers of my college days. It was also a calm river.

This is the first painting I made of my journey of The Chestatee River portfolio.