42 thereof) that is essential to making a painting; and the hours in a day that can be depended on because only light can determine the success or failure of a painting. And the most important element, just to the side of the easel, is friendship. Without his friends, Tony’s expe- ditionary art would not be completed. I use the word “completed” here very carefully, because the feeling of completion is the magic of a true artist. It is a feeling when they have reached the end of the artistic process. Without it, an artist would start one project in their life and never stop working on it. The word “perfection” doesn’t come close to what an artist is seeking. One person’s perfection is another’s mess. The magic is when you know that something is complete, and for Tony, that feeling must include his friends. Whether they are joining him on one of his trips to the most remote places on Earth or meeting him for tea next to a bottomless canyon, friends are part of the watercolor that Tony splashes onto his paper each time he finds a landscape. After the second monsoon rainstorm hit us, turning the canyon into a million chocolate milk waterfalls, I told the crew, “We need to learn to love the mud. Don’t fight it. Let’s make it part of our experi- ence.” I’m not sure if that was the turning point, but we did manage to pull off one of the most complex productions I’ve ever been a part of while shooting some of the most exotically beautiful footage you will ever see. Tony was wondering during the first few days on the river if he would be able to get even one painting done. It was stressful. You will see the six paintings that he was able to achieve, and please—look for the mud. It’s there on the paintings. We couldn’t wash it completely off our equipment or our souls. Thank you to the amazing crew that somehow trudged through the mud, set up camp, made us dinner, and pulled us through. Tony’s framing is never just what is in the painting. It is the place in its entirety: the level ground where a tent can be perched; the water (or lack Tony was determined to paint the entire Green River, from headwaters to confluence with the Colorado River. Unless you have a canoe or a kayak, the final 100 miles of the river are roadless, inacces- sible canyons. You can only explore most of this section at river level. And that is what Tony wanted to do, which equated to nine days and 100 miles in a canoe. This presented several unique challenges for me, the filmmaker. First, where are we going to charge our camera, lights, and laptop batteries in a place where you can’t plug in? Our sponsor Rockpals Solar answered that by supplying us with a solar charging station that provided more than enough electricity throughout the expedition, even when everything was covered in mud. The second challenge was the mud itself. How do you keep your equipment clean in the muddiest environment on our planet with a limited amount of clean water to live on? The answer? You just deal with it. David Schendel, Joe Pavlo (producer, cinematographer), Tony Foster and Rachel Burton (production coordinator), Green River Lakes, Wyoming, 2022
