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A painting from the early 1980s when his work was in transition, Untitled (Beaver Dam), is an outstanding work from this crucial time in Ted Godwin's career. Close examination of the background of the work reveals densely stained painted passages, the remnant of Godwin's earlier 'Tartan' paintings. This type of background treatment is not typical of more recent landscape works by the artist. This piece might in fact be made from an unfinished 'Tartan' painting. Another noteworthy aspect of this painting is the use multiple horizons exemplified by the beaver dams moving back in space. Ted Godwin has remarked that he was interested in historical Japanese prints at the time this work was completed. This use of multiple horizons, with no foreground is typical of this style of image making from Japan. The work has an almost unsettling abstract quality in that as a viewer, you tend to float out in space, with no immediate sense of which way is up. This also has the effect of keeping the heavier and thicker brushwork that encompasses beaver dams, foliage and water on the surface of the canvas, denying the viewer the immediate ability to read the work as a traditional landscape and sets up a strong tension between two and three dimensions.