It must be Spring. A time when the sluggish, slow pace of winter changes to a "gotta get things done around here, quick" mode! Not only does that mean getting the yard raked and cleaned up, but the flower gardens ready as well. Also means getting the projects we were supposed to get done in the winter, now done in the spring.
I can see my quiet painting days are numbered and I was thankful for a very prolific winter. I have many projects to finish up and am now wondering why I waited.
Here's a pic of a recent painting I finished and I now have three large pieces in the works which I am very excited about! Happy painting!

I truly believe that my surroundings influence and inspire my artwork. It seems it took awhile for me to finally realize that and it is finally showing in the new abstracted landscapes I've been working on. I've been spending some time horseback riding this winter and now in Spring, kayaking down the creek near here. I'm seeing the marshgrass in a whole new way and the simplicity of the fields and fencelines as well. One need not travel to find inspiration - just look around you. (Good thing because I didn't get a vacation this winter.)

I always LOVED working large, in fact one of my favorite pieces was 4 feet by 6 feet, however, this winter I started working on some smaller, more intimate, landscapes and so it goes - I fell in love with working small, again. I've gotten some requests from galleries to see some large works, so I am happily back in a large working pattern and loving it!
I'm starting these large pieces by imagining some of my smaller pieces in a much larger format and although I start with an image in mind, intuitiveness takes over and the large piece always turns out to be a different, piece of it's own.
These new larger pieces are approximately 30 x 42 inches.

Working under pressure - always works for me, I seem to get a lot accomplished. I took the afternoon off and went for a horse ride on a beautiful sunny afternoon and have come back refreshed and back to the studio I go. I currently have a solo-show at the UW-Marinette Gallery space, however, it features my mixed media paintings I have done prior to my move to the oil/cold wax abstracted landscapes.
After much hard work this winter in the studio of not only painting, but cleaning as well, I've got a solid body of new work that I am really satisfied with. So . . . I got organized, put together a portfolio of my new work and sent it off to some galleries. I've started to get some responses back, somes no's, some love my work and a couple that sound promising. There is one for sure out of all this work so far and that is - I'm happy to announce - the start of a gallery/artist relationship with Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Door County! I feel one of the best galleries in the peninsula! They called me immediately upon receiving my portfolio and I'm on my way to organizing the select group of pieces that I will be taking to them in April. Still waiting to hear from a few more of the galleries, but am thrilled to be a new artist at Edgewood Orchard Galleries! So, after this beautiful spring day of riding through the marshes and fields and woods - I'm back to capturing the simplicity in my memory of what I saw in nature today!