SARDIS AT SUNSET
Sardis Lake is a federally managed flood-control and recreation lake in northwest Mississippi whose project area extends through Lafayette County.
- Place
- SARDIS AT SUNSET
- Location
- Oxford, MS
- Content mode
- FULL_STORY
- Medium
- Archival pigment print, museum-grade matte
- Sizes
- 8×10 · 12×18 · 16×20 · 16×24 · 24×36 in
The record
Sardis Lake extends through three north Mississippi counties, including Lafayette. The federal project serves flood-control and recreation purposes, but the water itself is the only part retained here.
This print reduces the lake at sunset to horizontal bands. Violet and blue fields descend into mauve, orange and pale gold, interrupted only by a narrow dark shoreline. A single diagonal bank enters at the lower left; no boat, pier or building is added to explain the scene.
The scale comes from what is withheld: a low horizon, uninterrupted water and more sky than land.
What this print shows
The image is organized as broad, nearly uninterrupted horizontal colour fields. The far shoreline is compressed into one thin dark strip just below the center, while the near bank cuts across the lower left as the only strong diagonal. Subtle painted variation sits inside the bands, but there are no clouds, structures or small landscape details to disturb the open distance.
Common questions
Where is Sardis Lake in relation to Oxford?
The lake project extends through Lafayette County as well as Panola and Marshall counties in northwest Mississippi.
What does this print include from the actual landscape?
It keeps the open water, low distant shoreline and large sunset sky, while omitting boats, piers, buildings and detailed vegetation.
Sources
- Sardis Lake, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District. Kilde · set 2026-08-25
- Sardis Lake History and Missions, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District. Kilde · set 2026-08-25
Not documented — and therefore not claimed
- Every Oxford resident or student makes a customary drive to Sardis Lake. — The old copy universalized an experience that was not documented.
- A boat or pier appears in the print. — Neither object is present in the approved master.
- The artwork records a specific dated sunset or exact viewpoint on the shoreline. — The composition is an abstracted lake study without a verifiable site marker.
Verified 2026-08-25 · artwork inspected against the approved master
Independent artwork by Old Haunts Studio. The name of the place is used solely to identify the subject depicted. This is an original illustration, not a photograph.