Although Grace Turnbull was largely known for her sculptures, her oeuvre also includes landscape paintings that dance between figuration and abstraction. In this work, she captures the powerful energy of a whirlpool with swirling, thick colors that feel three-dimensional in their graphic quality, in a style reminiscent of 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints. She noted in her autobiography that she was captivated by the “quips and cranks and wanton wiles . . . gurgling whirlpools and miniature waterfalls” that surfaced in a stream after summer rains. Turnbull was a member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and this work was included in their 1932 group exhibition. Such affiliate groups often gave women the opportunity to exhibit, helping artists who may have been overlooked because of their gender.