Happy Holidays Everyone!

Snow Near Troy Kentucky 8x10 Oil Study

I'm so appreciative of my collectors, friends, fellow artists and family for a wonderful year, personally and artistically. That's not to say I don't struggle with paintings sometimes (OK, too often).  This scene was built from photographs taken in Jessamine county a week ago when we had 3-4" snow, a big deal for Kentucky nowadays.

I was out bright and early when I saw the sun peeking through the clouds. I'd like to say this was painted plein aire, but my car outside thermometer said 19 degrees.   I love paintings where the focal point, brightest brights, is in the distance, which one can invent, but in this case that was exactly the case. Here we are looking east, the clouds indicating most of the snowfall had passed. It's always a privilege to be out in Mother Nature's realm. Happy Holidays!

Deja View

Last spring I came across a wonderful old tobacco barn by the side of the road  and just had to paint it. This 8x10 plein aire piece shows just  how "spring-green" the grasses can be.

Recently, after a weekend of snow, I revisited the site and decided to do a painting from the same viewpoint. Since the temperature was nineteen degrees and windchill near zero, I took photos and returned to a warm studio to paint it. The low winter morning sun was in almost the same direction relative to me as it was in spring. So the barn is backlit in both paintings.

In the meantime (between these two paintings) I did a plein aire of the other side of the barn. Love those barns.