DESCRIPTION

A tall water tower dominates the left of the composition, its spherical tank catching the light. Below it, a small-town street intersection stretches across the lower third with a stop sign, telegraph poles, low buildings, and bare trees. The sky above is extraordinary: a bold, expressive field of blue with pink-orange clouds and thin telegraph wires crossing in every direction.

Sally comments: 'High Water has a filmic quality. Maybe it's the shape of this water tower or the absence of people, but I always think of the tripods in War of the Worlds when I look at it. The scene came out of nowhere — we were driving back from Monterey and stopped at the traffic lights in Gonzales when this eerie shape emerged. I quickly took a photograph before the light changed.'

High Water is the most urban and unexpected painting in the California collection. Unlike the serene coastal scenes, this painting centers on a striking man-made structure and a quiet town intersection, yet shows the same attention to light and atmosphere that defines the coastal works.

Exhibited in Lumens, Sally Herriott's solo exhibition in Stockholm in 2025, and at the Grünewaldvillan, Saltsjöbaden, 2026.