One passion often opens gateways to others. With that in mind it seems natural enough that a person who loves art and loves the outdoors should be drawn to landscape painting.

To feed these passions I have been trying to head out on a long walk/hike every weekend. I look forward to this all week as a time to be alone, stretch my legs, and just generally be thankful for every thing I have. No matter how the week has gone, this makes me feel alive again. It also gives me a chance to gather inspiration for paintings both current and future. While there is not time enough in the world to express in paint or words the wonder and beauty experienced while I walk, I would like to try to share a small bit of it with you.

This week featured a very local (out my door to the left, then left, and left again past “5 Cat Farm”) wander of a few hours down a route I haven’t followed before. Small surprise. Switzerland is a walkers’ paradise of more than 62,000 plus km of marked “Wanderwege”! As my mood was pensive, hazy and lazy it was just the right sort of walk of the “green valleys, wildflower, puffy cloud” variety. There was inspiration aplenty for both current and new paintings, with the general impression that it is time to move from grey skies and craggy forms, to a more “spring-like” expression.

Anyway, here are a few photos. Please, of course, feel free to use any of these for your own inspiration and art.

Happy wandering! – HD