Wanaque Reservoir
— a held lake the cities of New Jersey drink from.
Not only on a wall.
Wanaque Reservoir, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A working reservoir cupped by the Ramapos. The shoreline runs about seven and a half miles, posted and quiet, with bald eagles wintering along the north end. No swimming, no boats without a permit, no shortcut around it. The water belongs to people who will never see it. From the studio, that feels like the right kind of place to paint. — from the studio
The place, in three passes.
The Wanaque Reservoir sits in Passaic County, New Jersey, impounding the Wanaque River behind the Raymond Dam. Completed in 1930 by what is now the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, it holds roughly 29.6 billion gallons and serves several million residents across northern New Jersey. The shoreline runs about seven and a half miles through the Ramapo Mountains, bordered by the boroughs of Wanaque and Ringwood and the southern edge of Ringwood State Park. Access is restricted: fishing is by permit only, with no swimming and no unauthorised boats.
The reservoir reads as quiet because most of it is unreachable on foot. Posted shoreline keeps the crowd at the road. In winter, bald eagles concentrate at the north end near the Monksville inlet — the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife counts them each January as part of the statewide midwinter survey. The loudest thing on the water most mornings is the wind off the Ramapos and an occasional plow truck on Greenwood Lake Turnpike. It is one of the largest bodies of water in northern New Jersey and one of the least walked.
The reservoir is closed to general recreation, but two adjacent windows let you stand near the water. Ringwood State Park, on the eastern shore, offers paths through Skylands Manor and the Botanical Gardens with reservoir views from the upper trails. Long Pond Ironworks State Park and the Monksville Reservoir, just north, share the same watershed and are open for fishing, hiking, and small-boat launching. Shoreline fishing on the Wanaque itself requires a permit from the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, and the perimeter road is gated.
