Seeing the forest for the trees...

I've been working on a 30" x 40" painting of the forest from studies I made while in the NC mountains last month... working to keep it abstracted.  At one point I was dissatisfied with it... turned it upside down to study the composition.  Then worked on it upside down for awhile.  When I turned it back "rightside up" it looked much better!   Go figure (have to trick that left brain sometimes I suppose).

By the way, my fun abstracted painting of Theo, "Model No Show" won a prize at the TRAA show in New Bern this week.  Yay!

Another Neuse River walk

Michael, Theo and I celebrated Independence day with an early morning walk along the beach at Pine Cliff on the Neuse River.  We got there at 8 am and walked for over two hours, only seeing a handful of other people.  Here's a shot Michael took of me and Theo at the far end of the beach... gorgeous morning.

Light on the Neuse River

I've been walking/running with my lab Theo on the Pine Cliff beach on the Neuse River this month.  Its less buggy than the trails we  usually run, and its beautiful.  Theo likes the fresh water flowing from the woods into the river.   Its a beautiful spot and a nice lone 2-mile beach.  We usually have it to ourselves on weekdays.  The light was spectacular on our last walk...

Another little mountain study...

Here is another little study I made while sitting next to the Davidson River near Brevard earlier this month...

Study in Greens

We just took a little camping trip to the mountains to escape the heat and bugs and see a dear friend.  We camped at Mount Pisgah and then came down the mountain to the Davidson River State Park near Brevard.  Our campsite faced a small mountain and the myriad shades of green were fascinating in the changing light. I got out my paints and made this little study.  The areas of light kept moving, but it was a delightful challenge.  I hope to work this up into a bigger painting.

More veggies!

I love the fresh veggies of spring.  I've been continuing my series of little paintings of veggies.  Here's the latest.  These are nice warm-ups before getting to work on my commissions... simple but fun, kinda like the subject ; )

Farm Stand Inspiration

We got back from the local farm stand with some gorgeous veggies!  I feel a new series coming on... Here's a small study I did of the vibrant onions...