South Llano
Texas Riverscape

About the Painting

The South Llano River enters the painting at the lower edge and runs back toward the hills in a long curve, its water painted in blue, violet and silver. Rounded stones in gold, rust and brown break the surface of the river and line its banks, and each stone carries a cool blue shadow on its lower side.

The trees on both banks wear the colors of autumn: yellow, gold, orange and green, with a few dark pines among them. Small white flecks scattered through the trees at the right suggest blossoms or light catching the leaves. In the distance, hills of violet and gray rise under a pale sky, and their soft edges place them far away.

Donna lays the water in horizontal strokes, leaving bright streaks of white paper where the light catches the current. The reflections of the trees appear as soft vertical touches of gold in the water near the far bank. Along the river’s edge, grasses and reeds are drawn with fine dark lines that give the foreground its texture. A tall tree with a green crown stands at the center of the far bank, and the river seems to flow from beneath its branches.

The South Llano River rises in Edwards County and runs northeast for 55 miles to meet the North Llano just east of Junction. Texas Parks and Wildlife describes the river as fed by springs and slow moving, and South Llano River State Park, in Junction, sits on the southwestern edge of the Hill Country.

The painting is one of Donna’s Texas places, and its full title names both the river and the state. Donna signs her name at the lower right, in the shallow water by the bank. Enlarged in the viewer, the stones of the riverbed show the layering of warm and cool color that makes each one look wet and solid.