red cedar

On the shore of one of the hidden lakes grows this incredible, ancient eastern red cedar. In this view, none of the green "needles" are even visible. Its twisting, gnarled trunk grips the rock firmly as it has for decades. A captivating tree, an old soul.

under the tree

I often painted at this farm when I was living in Ohio. It is about a mile from where I grew up and has been a favorite subject. I also painted a larger version of this image, which turned out quite well.

woods mist

When I took the reference images for this piece, it was so rainy and steamy that the image turned out misty and foggy. I wanted to experiment with getting that effect in paint, and I have not attempted any larger pieces from this set of images,so I thought this would be a good chance to try it.

dark lake

Being housebound all week led me to search through some old reference for inspiration. This image is from our day at hidden lake this month, a view of the distant cliffs and murky water. I especially liked the pale trees against the darker pines.

new addition

When the weather was still warm last week, we made our way to the garden center to buy some plants. This sad little cactus was slightly diseased, but Derek liked its uniqueness, so we brought it home (at a discount!). We'll see how it fares in the long run...I don't tend to have the best luck with plants.

highway

I am finally catching up on the paintings after several days of resting the shoulder. I was drawn to this image after working at an art workshop all weekend last week with domestic violence survivors. It seemed like a good visual metaphor for where my thought were all weekend.

ouch!

Due to a very persistent muscle strain/tendonitis in my shoulder, I am under orders to rest my painting arm completely for at least a few days. This is why I have not posted for the last two days. I will be posting "catch-up" pieces as soon as possible. I can't wait to get back to the easel, but I have finally resigned myself to resting up so that I can get back to work quickly. There's no torture like sitting around the studio staring at blank canvas that you can't paint on. :-(