"Sierra Morning" ©

The last 2 days I have been painting this piece and it's getting close to the finish. I photographed it on the easel, any closer and the shine from the lights washed out areas, because of the size of the canvas and wet paint. I miss painting the tiny 5" X 7" daily's regularly but have to be disciplined and paint larger till I have all of the inventory for my November show. A note to artists, this image is from the http://www.wetcanvas.com/ reference library. A great resource for artists that is created by artists, without worries of copyright issues.

Oil on Linen, 24" X 20"

"Sierra Duck" ©

Prior to visiting the Sierra's I had no idea that ducks would happily swim in ice water. As their creek froze over they would all migrate to the large lake, then later in the day when the sun had performed it's magic defrost the ducks would return to the creek. A winters day routine. Preening took up a major amount of time for this high "Sierra Duck".

Oil on canvas, 6" X 8"

"Winter Brush" ©

On painter John Cosby's bookshelf I found "Impressionists In Winter, Effets de Neige". Ever curious I requested the book from my library and it finally arrived. I was inspired by the works of Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Caillebotte, and their handling of frost, snow, storms in the winter French landscape. Today, inspired I painted another Sierra piece of "Winter Brush".

Oil on panel, 5" X 7"

"Fall's Gold" ©

4700 ft. elevation, just before a major storm, the last of fall's gold is dangling in the sunlight. Nature naturally combines complimentary colors, in this case the yellow trees and egg blue sky. "Fall's Gold" was the first painting I painted while on an art trip last weekend to the Sierra's. We had an amazingly productive time, 14 paintings between four artists. Personally I was very lucky to have this opportunity following the John Cosby workshop, as I was able to practice his "pile" method and start tweaking it to work for me. Also Cosby's tip about keeping the paint warm, and white in your pocket paid off, as the creek froze during the night, proving that it was indeed chilly. Standing next to a small lake, painting this piece all I could hear was the faint quacking of ducks in the distance. There were painting possibilities everywhere you looked. I loved it, the air, the colors, the chilly air and warm sun.

Oil on linen panel, 9" X 12"