Clear Awakening — Original Watercolor

Clear Awakening

Some of my earliest and strongest memories of Lake Tahoe are not of looking at it from a distance.

They are of standing right at its edge.

As a child, I spent as many days as I could fishing — standing on granite rocks that were freezing cold in the early morning and warm, rough, and pokey beneath my feet later in the day.

I spent hundreds of hours looking into that water.

Watching light move across it. Studying the rocks beneath the surface. Seeing turquoise turn to blue, green, and glimmering silver depending on the depth and the angle of the sun.

Those hours became part of how I learned to see.

They also became part of how I learned to be still.

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Where Faith Found Me

Fishing was never only about catching fish for me.

Those quiet hours outdoors were some of the first places I remember talking to God, listening, thinking, and beginning to understand myself.

Nature became one of the places where faith made sense to me.

There was something about being surrounded by mountains, water, sky, granite, and silence that made the world feel both enormous and deeply personal at the same time.

Much of the faith I still carry began during those childhood hours beside Lake Tahoe.

Clear Awakening holds something of that feeling for me — the clarity that can come when everything becomes quiet enough to really see.

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Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe

The scene in Clear Awakening was inspired by Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, a place known for extraordinarily clear turquoise water and massive sculpted granite formations.

But I didn’t approach the painting as a literal copy of one photograph.

The granite and water in the finished piece also carry decades of memory.

I grew up around the lake and spent countless hours near similar granite and clear water around Zephyr Cove and other parts of Tahoe. I knew how those rocks looked dry, wet, submerged, sunlit, shadowed, and distorted beneath moving water.

So while the photograph gave me the composition, experience gave me much of the painting.

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Painting Through the Water

The foreground of Clear Awakening is really about what happens beneath the surface.

The submerged stones have their own colors, edges, shadows, and textures, while another layer of light and movement exists above them.

I wanted the water to feel transparent rather than simply blue — something you could visually enter.

Transparent watercolor allowed me to build that depth slowly, creating the sensation of looking through one layer into another.

The result changes as your eye moves from the solid granite in the foreground, through the submerged rocks, across the turquoise shallows, and finally toward the deeper blue water and Sierra Nevada mountains beyond.

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Ripples That Appear and Disappear

There is another element in Clear Awakening that a photograph cannot completely capture.

I used shimmering mineral and gemstone watercolor pigments in portions of the water, including the delicate surface ripples.

Depending on where the light is coming from — and where you are standing — those ripples can become distinctly luminous.

Move to another angle and they soften, becoming almost transparent again.

I often describe the effect in the gallery as being a little like a diamond: from one angle, the surface catches and reflects light back toward you; from another, more of the depth beneath becomes visible.

That shifting quality gives the painted water an almost living surface.

I didn’t fully realize how dramatic the effect would be until the painting was finished.

It became one of those wonderful moments when the materials contributed something unexpected of their own. That shifting play of light belongs uniquely to the original — something no reproduction can fully capture, and something that makes seeing the piece in person a distinctly different experience.

The water seems to move as the viewer moves.

For a painting born from a lifetime spent observing Lake Tahoe change with the light, those shifting ripples seem to hold a little of the magic I have always felt in its water.

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Artwork Details

Title: Clear Awakening
Artist: Christie Marie Elder
Created: 2015
Medium: Original Watercolor with shimmering mineral and gemstone pigments
Artwork Dimensions: 20" H × 16" W
Framed Dimensions:  28¼" H × 24¼" W × 1" D
Price: $12,000
Original: One of One

 

Framing

Clear Awakening is professionally presented in a simple dark-stained wood frame with subtle etched detailing, double matting, and acrylic glazing.

The warm neutral mats create a quiet transition between the frame and the luminous blues and turquoise of the watercolor, while the darker inner mat helps define the artwork without competing with it.

The frame itself has just enough etched detail to add character while allowing the clarity of the water, granite, and mountain landscape to remain the focus.

Professionally framed and ready to hang.

 

Artist Signature & Documentation

Signature: Signed by Christie Marie Elder on the front.

Each original artwork includes a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) together with an artist biography for provenance and collector records.

Copyright

© Christie Marie Elder. All rights reserved.

Purchase of the original artwork transfers ownership of the physical artwork only. Copyright and reproduction rights remain with the artist and do not transfer with the sale.

Shipping & Delivery

Kauaʻi: Complimentary gallery pickup or local delivery is available for original artwork purchases.

Off-Island & International Collectors: Because each original artwork requires specialized packing and insured transport, shipping is quoted individually based on the artwork and destination.

Before purchasing, please click the “Request a Shipping Quote” button on this page and complete the short form with your delivery address. We’ll arrange the appropriate professional packing and transport, then contact you with the complete shipping quote.

Once you approve the quote, we’ll send you a secure invoice through our online gallery for the artwork and shipping.