November, Heading into Winter

I'm settling down into a quieter time of year. I'm done with my outdoor art shows for this year and I'm wrapping up the teaching of my color class for the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time in my studio. During this winter I plan to explore my ideas in larger formats. I have some cool ideas for cityscapes from things I observed in Washington, DC. In addition, you'll continue to see skies as a dominant theme in my landscape pieces.

To that end, I'm currently working on a couple of large central Pennsylvania landscape paintings. The first is a roadside scene that I caught last month near highway 550, just north of my home and south of Bellefonte. It's a gorgeous late afternoon view of the autumn fields and trees as the sun begins to set.

The second piece is a once-in-a-lifetime view of a rainbow over Black Moshannon Bog. I dragged my husband and my dog up there at the start of last month because I wanted to do some field work during the height of the fall colors. It was kind of a "choppy" afternoon with gusty winds and intermittent clouds, but I took the chance on making the 20 minute drive up to the park from our home. Well, as soon as we arrived in the park, it poured rain. And there's nothing quite like having an exuberant dog, who's poised to go out in the woods, stuck in your car and panting while you're forced to keep the windows closed in a heavy rain. As our windows fogged in, I grew a bit discouraged and thought it best to return home, but my husband -- always more patient than I -- thought we could wait it out. Sure enough, within about 15 minutes the rain diminished and the most amazing full rainbow emerged over the bog. I think the last time that I saw a rainbow from end to end was when I was a kid in southern Wisconsin, where the flatter landscape there is more conducive to that kind of a vista.

After these pieces I'm planning to work on some cityscape ideas that I've had brewing for several months since my last trip to Washington, DC. Although these pieces will capture autumn and summer settings, the temperatures here in central Pennsylvania are already pretty cool and light snow is in the forecast for this evening. As we get into winter, there's nothing that I enjoy more than taking a steaming mug of tea up to my studio, turning on some music, and immersing myself in new ideas. And I'm hopeful that we'll get a real winter this season....Lots of snow!