Early Mother's Day Flowers (photo)

These beautiful flowers were delivered a few days early so I could enjoy them all Mother's Day weekend, and I certainly am!

Flora, The Flowering Cod (Sketch as of April 18, 2026)

Every year I decorate a wooden cod for the Marblehead Cod Auction, to benefit the Marblehead Festival of Arts.  I had been thinking of what to do this year.  I started looking though pictures of different kinds of codfish.  I found one called "the flowering cod."  Although the name sounded promising, the photos of the actual fish were not.  The fish has brown markings which vaguely resemble flowers, against a lighter background of stipled skin.  That didn't sound appealing. But I kept thinking about it. What if the markings actually looked like flowers? What if I substituted a pink-tinted gold for brown? What if the stippled skin became polka-dots? So I drew this sketch of a codfish decorated with flowers and polkadots. . I traced my wooden cod cut-out onto a big piece of paper and drew this sketch.  I would call her Flora.

"Mountains of Home" (paintings on display at Porter Mill)

On February 5th, some of my mountain paintings were hung in the lobby of Porter Mill Studios here in Beverly, MA..  The title of this show is "Mountains of Home," all paintings of my home state of Colorado. After all my were on the wall, I took this video.  

"Winter Sunrise" (Drawing Video)

Yesterday I created this little drawing video on my iPad. I am sending this out to wish everyone peace, love, health, and hope in 2026.

Snow on Ski Trails (Painting as of Dec. 26, 2025)

Here is my painting as of Dec. 26, 2025.  I worked on the sky and added color to the sun and some reflected pink light to the tops of the mountains.  I also added a another layer of color to the foreground.

Snow on Ski Trails (Painting as of Dec. 25, 2025)

Here is my painting as it looked on December 25th.  Earlier, I had used the Painter program on my computer to try out some changes that I wanted to make to the composition.  My idea was to add more mountain shapes and a road to the foreground.  I was pleased with the changes, and at this point I was working to implement them on the canvas.  

Snow on Ski Trails (Digitally Edited Try-Out) Dec 25, 2025

During the preceding days, while working on my painting I had been considering changes to the composition,  but I wanted to do a digital "dress rehearsal" before I making big changes on the canvas.  So on December 25th, I uploaded the most recent photo of my painting, taken the day before (December 24th), and opened the image in Painter, on my computer so I could sketch in the changes I was considering.  My idea was to add some shapes to the foreground.  Because earlier, I had removed a road from the foreground of the original photo,  I decided to put a road back in, though in a very different position, one that would allow me to improve the composition . So with digital pastel, I sketched in the changes I was considering.  I was happy with the new composition, so printed this out to use as a guide as I made changes on the canvas.

Snow on Ski Trails (Painting as of Dec. 24, 2025)

Here is my painting as it looked on December 24th.  I worked on the sky, making the position of the sun more obvious.  I added detail to the mountains in the distance, and added some shadows to the ski trail in the foreground.  Although I was please with my progress at this point, I was still considering changes to the composition.  To be continued. . . . 

Snow on Ski Trails (Painting as of Dec. 23, 2025)

I finally got this painting started on December 23. I changed the plan again, deviating from my (revised) reference photo by simplifying the foreground even more. I used acrylic paint to rough in the sky and the mountains in the background, and the ski trail in the foreground.  I created the forested areas with collaged tissue paper.  This was quite rough but the main parts of the composition were in place, but with more changes to come.