Plein Air Season

I am packing my supplies to go plein air painting tomorrow. It will be "opening day" for the season. Artists from all over the region will converge on a particularly beautiful site. Like bears leaving our winter dens we blink at the sunlight and sniff the air. Plein air is a multi-sensory situation. It is also a very social exercise for artists that spend most of their working life in isolation. We will be at the same place where I did "Summer Residents" which is a pastel painting. That day I was working alone... or at least I thought I was alone. Several geese came up on the bank and stood around me as I painted. I found it amusing how close they came to me and how still they were as if to not disturb my work. The ducks on the other hand were a study in frenetic activity. The geese slyly showed their disapproval of the unruly neighbors. This is how we spent a lovely Summer's afternoon together, my feathered friends and I. You see that's the thing about working plein air. There's always a story that goes with the image.

May Flowers

Rain and flowers just seem to go together just as wonder and enchantment does. This acrylic painting began one rainy Spring day when my oldest daughter was seven. She loved walking in the rain and picking wild violets that dotted the lawn. As she climbed the steps a look swept over her face. It spoke of childhood whimsie and enchantment. I knew that one day I would paint this scene. "Phoebe and the Rainy Day Violets" is dedicated to all of us that have retained some part of the wonder of childhood. Those of us who know that somewhere out there, under a leaf, lies a treasure if only we look for it.