Sunday Morning at Valley Forge Park

When we arrived at the park we were greeted by the full moon. 

     When it started to get light out I started a sketch of the moon and the maple tree to the right. I used the light from inside the truck to see by.

 This is the sketch, I finished the rest of it at home. I wanted to capture the lighting conditions at the time when it just starts to get light out. I ran out of time because the light changes faster than I can paint.

 The sun started to peek over the horizon.

 The tree I was painting with a little sun on it.

 We got in the truck and and started looking for scenes to photograph, and came upon this guy, he was curious.

 He did a nice job of posing for us.

 Here was a photographer walking away with a big buck walking behind him

 A spot of  color along one of the trails.

 My brother Phil photographing some scenery.

Spent three hours at the park and captured some good images, not a bad way to start the morning.

Paintings from the flyfishing trip

This leaf came from the maple tree outside the cabin. This year only a few leaves turned while we were there, the tree was still mostly green. Half the leaf was bright red the other half was starting to turn brown.

This is the maple tree this year.

I did this painting at night back at the cabin from the study I did at the stream.

This is the study done streamside, I wanted to capture the shaft of sunlight on the tree and its reflection in the stream. While I was doing this Tom caught three brook trout further upstream.

This shows me with my paintbox on a blowdown and the scene I painted.

I painted this at the cabin at night from the pencil sketch  I did that day. It helps doing these color studies as soon as possible while the scene is still fresh in your mind.

This is the pencil sketch I did standing in the stream watching Tom.

This is the view standing on the porch looking out thru the stand of pines to the mountains in the back. Every morning the fog is here at dawn, along with the 39 degree temps too.

This was painted at dawn another day with a heavier fog trying to hide the mountains in the back.

These sketches done on location will help me when its time to do studio paintings, I will have all the information needed concerning color, values,and mood. And you end up learning a little more every time you go out.

As a side note- eariler in the year my camera fell out of my vest and into the stream rendering it useless. The second camera I brought developed problems a week before the trip, it keeps shorting out the new batteries after taking 2 pictures, so I was cameraless this trip. When I got home there was a package there for me.
How suprised I was to find a camera just like my original one that took a swim in the stream. My wife had ordered one the day I left on our trip. She's the greatest.

Annual Flyfishing Trip to Northcentral Pa.

We had another successful trip this year. Caught alot of trout, saw alot of wildlife, and got some painting in too. We had good weather this week except for a little rain on Thursday. We visited the new Elk Visitors Center and went looking for and found a herd of elk. In the 2nd picture you see a bull elk laying down on the top of the hill, he has an impressive set of antlers. The skunk visited us most nights probably because we put out hardboiled eggs for him. He had a unique coloration to his fur, it was white on top and black on the bottom. I was within 8 feet of him  and he showed no fear whatsoever. You never smelled him once. A few times he tried coming up on the porch with us. The one picture shows me on a deadfall with my paintbox and the scene I painted in front of me. The small maple that is outside of the cabin is still mostly green. The picture above that is what it looked like 2 years ago in full color. My avatar is me painting that tree. You would think that after doing this for the last 23 years it would be easy leaving but its not, its always a little quieter on the ride home. What a great area to visit and a great vacation.

Thai chili peppers 5x7 oil

Thai chili peppers 5x7 oil  $50.00

I was getting things ready for work this morning and saw these peppers on the counter. I have been looking at these for the last two days and I guess today was the day. I worked on the shapes and color of the peppers and roughed in the background and the table before leaving for work. When I got home I adjusted the color of the peppers and finished the background and table.

They look like they should be hot.