Thenken Reverie
©2012, 28" by 20", Watercolour

"Princess Etheria's explorations of the forest with her squire-els Cedric and Nigel quickly became the stuff of legends.

In Thenken, that's saying a lot."

This is the third illustration I've painted for my fairy tale Princess Etheria and the Battling Bucks (download your own digital copy at princessetheria.com).

I have to say that it was an absolute pleasure watching this painting come together on paper, since it had existed only in my imagination for so long.

In this image, Princess Etheria is paddling her canoe The Riverie with her squire-els Cedric and Nigel on the Sweetwater River. In behind (among many other things) is the cabin that she shares with her father the King.

There are a lot of details in this image that you would recognize if you'd read the story. For example:

• The windowed sunroom on the front of the cabin that looks out over the river.
• The pothole on the spit of rock that juts out into the river in front of the cabin.
• The eddy line that stretches across the painting from the rock in front of the cabin, right under Etheria's canoe.
• The fact that she's doing a cross-draw as the canoe comes out of the eddy and across the eddy line, she's about the plant her paddle in the current in order to swing the front of the canoe around to point downstream.
• the cave opening that leads to a tunnel under the waterfall, as well as to the cave portal system.
• The red canoe on the beach that belongs to Fowler.
• The great tree Pneumena off in the distance. The tree is the size of a mountain, and the waterfall that is spouting out of the side of it is the source of the Sweetwater River.

There is also a healthy amount of symbolism. For example, in the image, she's paddling out of the protective eddy behind her father's cabin without him. This is symbolic of the fact that she's growing up, and beginning to make her own choices, and choose her own path.