One weekend in the summer of 2013, my wife and I decided to get out of the house and head to Middendorf’s, the famous catfish restaurant at Manchac. This is always a magical landmark for us, both culturally and geographically – the place where Coastal Louisiana meets the Deep South and the point where Lake Maurepas flows into Lake Pontchartrain. It is also the site of an old rail bridge where, if you are there at the right moment, you can spy the City of New Orleans headed on its route to and from Chicago.

When we left the restaurant, an impressive bank of thunderheads appeared over Pontchartrain, through which we later drove, enduring a torrential rain as we reached the outskirts of the city. This painting depicts this moment of midsummer weather and water.

We hadn’t even left the parking lot when the bridge lowered to allow an Amtrak full of vintage railcars cross the lake.

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