Sunset at the Columbia River by Eva Pietzcker - Davidson Galleries

The Columbia River forms much of the Washington-Oregon border, running through gorge country whose basalt cliffs and broad water surfaces are subjects Pacific Northwest artists have treated repeatedly. Pietzcker's print likely captures the river at low light, with the western sky carrying the warm-to-cool gradient that makes sunset a demanding mokuhanga subject. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) work — applied with a damp brush to the inked block before pulling each impression — can render the sky's continuous tonal shift, while the dark river below reads as silhouette and reflection. The palette probably includes vermilion or warm orange in the sky band, modulating into indigo above and below, with [sumi](/glossary/sumi) for the foreground forms. This print belongs to Pietzcker's sustained body of work on Pacific Northwest waterways, developed through her relationship with Davidson Galleries in Seattle. The Columbia, like the Tieton and the alkali lakes of the high desert, gives her a North American counterpart to the famous waterways of Japanese [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e), recast through traditional mokuhanga technique in a contemporary practice.