ah, cold softness

And now, winter. So much for that forsythia...

from kane mountain

A short walk up Kane Mountain near Caroga Lake, New York, yields this view from the top of the firetower that is still standing healthily there.

adirondacks

Last weekend, looking across Schroon Lake to the Dix Range. The sun came and went, and came and went. As did the rain.

boreal forest

Eagle River, just east of Anchorage in the Chugach State Park, carries glacial flour, making the water look grey (often called glacial milk). This finely ground rock is the result of the erosion a glacier does of its bed.

The fog is obscuring the views of the mountains.

adirondack sky

Spring sky between rain showers; this, at Blue Mountain Lake last week. What colors, eh?

morning quiet

Yesterday morning, at Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks. No people sounds yet, just the birds. And only the birds. No breeze, no rustle of leaves, no water slaps. Loon calls. Unidentified birdies singing their morning wake-ups, a very pleasant 6-note melody that ended on an anomalous gutteral, screechy 7th one. Surprise!

the color of light

At Letchworth Park the other day, the cold air, the clear sky, and the water droplets from the waterfall separated the sun's light into its true colors. If only everything hidden could be seen clearly once in a while.

multiple fish

Fish in the Forest

7 inches high x 5 inches wide

collage

There are fish in the forest, hiding, living secret lives. Illustration Friday came and went; the topic this week was "multiple." So many fish, so many stories.

more art

These two pieces came from a challenge with the themes of proportion and scale. The first, Walking in the Woods, led to the second, Falling Leaves.

 These are small works; WitW is 15.25 inches high and 14 inches wide. FL is 11 inches high and 8.75 inches wide. (Not shown in proportion to each other here.)

Walk in the Woods

Falling Leaves

These were nice pieces to work on. We were given two photos to use as inspiration. The one I chose had a tree on the right in the foreground, a building in the middle of the entire image, and a balcony about halfway up the building. (I think it's on the Fast Friday Challenge website—see link below.) And that's where the proportions of Walk in the Woods came from. I realized that I hadn't consciously worked with scale, so that's why Falling Leaves came to be.

Other results of this challenge can be found on the Fast Friday Challenge website.

Somewhere, on some list I was reading, someone asked, "Why do we make Art?" and the first thing that popped into my head was, "Because I can." Yeah, artists make art/Art to express something, but lots of people want to express what they are thinking or feeling, but don't have (or don't find) a way to do it. Those of us who have found a way to do it, do it. Some write poetry, some write prose, some play with fabric or paint or ink or stone. And, the only way to know if one can express oneself doing art is to go and do it. And, like anything else, the more one does it, the better one gets. Get going!