MAGENTA NOCTURNE

After a rather wet May, we are finally getting a few stunning sunsets in the mountain. I like to paint nocturne because it's fun to go wild with strong pure colors.

8:10pm

8:20, mother nature does not stay still

FLAMING SUNSET

A main reason I'm living in the Catskill Mountain is because of the Hudson River School. Around every bend, it's another picture perfect landscape, just as an artist could wish. This sketch came about from a visit to an artist's studio. The beautiful effects of the dark shapes against a flaming sunset is a constant theme for the Hudson River School.

PLEIN AIR NOCTURNE

6:30am, trying to catch the light before it changes. Still mild enough to be painting outside & breathing in the morning scent from my garden.

MARCH SNOW

Another weekend, another storm passing thru the mountain top.

SNOWY NOCTURNE

After a day of warm sunshine, the cold stillness of a winter evening sets in... this might be my last snowy sketch for the season.

GOOD SELLER

This design has been a good seller at GCU. Thru the magic of the internet, customer as far as Europe & the Orient ordered this card. There's infinite ways of how a new painting come about. For the new year, I thought I would take asketchaday into a new direction. I would devote more time to explain my creative process. A new idea does not always start from my sketchbook, but lots of ideas DO take shape by flipping thru my sketches. My memory is not what it use to be. As long as I sketch it out, the image stays. This painting came about pretty fast. I was invited to a christmas party in Cooperstown a few winters ago. There were tons of early snow that month. Which was why I was painting alot of snowy nocturnes thru my window. I also spend time studying nocturnes of artist like Whistler & Birge Harrison... whether they are famous painters or not, works of others can inspire me. As I approach Shirley's house on top of the hill, the small strip of yellow after glow was dazzling against the dark silhouette of the pines. The xmas lights on the rooftop balance out the composition. By adding the house on top with xmas lights, it makes it more marketable as a license christmas design.