"Spring is Springing"


"Daffodils and Ball Jar",Linda Volrath, Oil on Linen, 9" x 12"

Spring is Springing at our house in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the birds are busy building nests, the rabbits are trying to eat everything growing in our gardens, and the trees are budding their brains out. That can only mean one thing, IT'S PLEIN AIR LANDSCAPE PAINTING TIME! We're dusting off our outdoor equipment and will be back out there battling the sun, snakes, bugs, wind, and whatever else nature wants to throw at us. It is all worth it when you stand in front of God's beautiful creation and really look at the light, shape, and color of nature. Nature is gloriously simple and amazingly complex and it all would take care of it's self if not for our destructive human behavior. So take some time this spring to go out and really see what God has created for us, and give nature the respect that it deserves.

We're back from our landscape painting trip to Bethlehem, PA. Thanks to Pat and Sandy for hosting us again. Great food, great friends, great weather, and plein air painting, what more can you ask for. We painted every morning and every afternoon for four days. We all did really well and have several paintings that just need a little touch up to be complete. I hope to post some of them in a few days. Here is a picture of me painting near the Trout hatchery. We painted with Sandy's Bethlehem Palette club on one morning, it was fun to be out painting with a dozen other artists.