Hello all,

Today brings new snow and a new painting. Yes, the latter despite the former (maybe I should be out there instead of in here blogging, I mean). After last weeks’ epic powder day we have had barely a flake and the groomers have been scraping up the same sad snow all week. Inspiration to finish a painting is pretty rare, however, and shouldn’t be ignored.

This painting, Maria and Leilani’s Sunset Run, comes from a photo taken by my friend and really wonderful photographer, Maria Davis. Maria is a good ski buddy, in small part because she understands and shares my need to stop a hundred times to photograph some random trees. For this photo I believe she was annoying her daughter Leilani by stopping a hundred times to photograph the sunset during an end-of-a- school day ski on Three Bears.

Anyhow, I had seen this photo on her social media and asked her if I could “borrow” it. The sunset’s interplay with sky, snow and trees is not something I quite know how to manage yet, but the image was beautiful and I really wanted to try. While the resulting painting is not quite as magical as the source material, it is a start. I am now gifting the painting to her (poor lady, she doesn’t really have a choice in the matter). Enjoy the painting Maria… on your wall, above the mantel, in your basement! I don’t judge.

And maybe I go ski now…