Tom Uttech imbues his grand-scale landscape paintings with a sense of mystery and awe. Sitting among a horde of forest creatures—all hurriedly moving across the picture plane from right to left—is a small, seated bear looking across the water at a standing bear on the opposite bank. Black bears are a recurring subject in Uttech’s work and often acknowledge a human presence, whether by directly staring out at the viewer or, as is the case here, sitting in for the artist or viewer in awe of the vast natural beauty pictured before us.

The title Enassamishhinjijweian is inspired by the language of the Anishinabe (Ojibwe) tribe and translates to “hope of good things to come."