Back after my leave of absence

sunlit walnut

Well. It’s been an eventful six weeks or so since I last posted anything. I was trying to post something weekly, and things were just too hectic there for awhile. There was work (of the kind that pays the bills) and baby goats and lambs to catch, and then udders full of milk to keep up with, and the taxes to be filed. My first time doing them for myself. Thanks for the help, Larry. 

Also, the weather was beautiful in March! Warm and sunny, things blooming too early, grass growing! It was too much to ask of myself to be inside at the computer or even in the studio. I moved some big rocks, planted some fruit trees and did some long-postponed landscaping work. 

I won’t bore you with the goat baby pictures here, if you want to see them, go to the Facebook page. The painting above is one of my favorites from the winter painting blitz. There’s a spot on Turnpike Road here in Rockbridge County that has a great view of Green Hill, so I often stop there and get out on my way home. This time, the sun was just about to set, and over the hill on the other side of the road was this beautiful walnut tree in a pasture, and the angle of the light was just stunning. I took a very bad picture with my cell phone, and came home and made this painting very soon after. Sometimes less information is better – I’m not inhibited from making up the details or enhancing the color, trying to re-create what I experienced. If the picture is a good one, it competes too much with what I remember. Memory is a very slippery thing.