Spring Street Bridge is an original oil painting of an iconic “rainbow” style bridge in Chippewa Falls, WI. It crosses Duncan Creek on the east side of downtown. If you visit Chippewa Falls, you will be able to read the plaque that explains all about the historic Spring Street Bridge.

I experimented with a new technique in this painting. I really thinned the paint with a special medium recipe that makes the paint very runny. I love how the colors merge in unexpected ways. It reminds me of watercolor. I love how watercolor does unexpected things as it dries. Oil paint usually doesn’t have that unexpectedness to it. I’ve been trying out ways to make oil paint behave more transparently like watercolor, and this is one technique that I’ve been trying lately.

This painting was created during the spring of 2021 as part of the Go Paint Chippewa Valley plein air competition. It won Best River painting.