“Cranberry Bog”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I painted here in late afternoon light over two years ago. Driving by the other day, I couldn’t resist creating it again in morning light with the tree shadows rippling across the drive…

“Tea Lane Barn”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $550.00 USD

I drive by this barn almost everyday. I alway want to paint it, but… Today was the day and the sun cooperated fully…

“July Barn”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Behind me as I worked on this painting were 2 baby raccoons. They were foraging among the Stuartia blossoms which had fallen from the trees in the grove. They kept a 30 foot distance from me, until I walked around behind the stone wall to try to photograph them. Their ears must be sharp because they were gone when I peeked over the top to where they were. I finally found one frozen behind a Stuartia trunk. I walked up to the tree and poked my camera around the side and got one good shot. Just like baby skunks, they sure are cute when they are little…

“Tea Lane Farm”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

I pass this scene in winter many times during the week. The Little Bluestem Grasses in the field turn a golden orange during the cold months. Sun hitting it late in the day gives it an extra boost of color against the bleaker landscape. Today I stopped to finally paint the view and was excited at how easily it all fell into place. But then I had been composing it in my mind each and everytime as I drove by…

“Red and Ready”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

It was a cool, freezing actually, and windless day this the last day in January. The red boat on a friend’s dock had been a painting in my mind for at least 5 years. I could never find the correct angle to work at until this year. Just having inherited the house, she had cut down all the tall spruce which had protected it from southwest winds, but also had hidden this view. While I painted, a Belted Kingfisher was working the low tide pools around the dock. He seemed to accept my stillness as not a threat. Many times he came within 10 feet of my easel, hovering and then splashing into the water for food…

“In The Shadows”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

This was a quick sketch as the sun darted below the tree line, the field filled full of shadow and the cloud cover warmed from the setting sun. At that moment the cattle came up the field in front of me. This gave opportunity…

“Polly Hill Fall”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

I had other ideas for today’s daily painting, but then again, so did the sun with its late season angle. I had scouted this earlier in the day for a future painting but came back again for today’s. I had been alerted that the 35 year old Magnolia Grandiflora, which Polly, Polly Hill Arboretum , had planted in the corner between the barn and shed in my painting, was taken down to be better able to repair the barn. It had surely outlived it’s place of honor there as it was hard to open the shed door much less the barn door without walking into a branch or two. Polly would have been happy to see the space opened up once more. It had been exceedingly difficult for anyone to do a painting of the barn the way the tree had covered over half of the front…

“Out To Pasture”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

Catching a wind as it cooled down, I wandered the pastures and looked around. I could have been here or there in Texas or New Jersey, Colorado, you name the place. Water, horses, cedars, field, sun playing the end of day… it felt just right…

“Front Yard Hay”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I thought I was finished painting hay for the season, but this was too much to resist. In a small, intimate field surrounded by stone walls/hedgerows with driveway on the side, house and barn in the back, it really felt like I was in the front yard. Yet here were all these fresh bales calling my name. Rare it is that I find hay near a house and I relished this “old” Vineyard feeling of house and hay…

“Summer’s Shadow”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

The hay was so thin and weak in this field that I didn’t think they would do more than cut it. I was surprised when I drove by this afternoon. I waited out the heat and went for a swim before setting up in the shadows of this oak tree. By then a subtle air current had started to make it bearable in the high humidity and 90 plus degree heat. My iced coffee didn’t hurt either…