This month I've begun a new series called "The Blue Garden". For now it's evolving as a sequence of small intimate paintings as the garden unfolds across the weeks. All are executed en plein air to achieve the most immediacy. What I find interesting is that even though I have designed and planted the garden myself , painting it affords a "knowing " unlike any other method I can think of. I often spend an evening sitting by the pond watching the fish, snapping turtle,frogs and dragonflies do their dance. It is a marvelous place to unwind and recharge. But the intensity of focus necessary to paint it and respond to it on that level is quite different. It requires resonating to it's lovely vibration and translating that vibration to canvas by color and brushstroke. My expectation is that these small snap shots will evolve into larger studio pieces through the winter when I need to languish in today's warmth which they forecast to be a 100 degrees! Plein air in this weather is not for the feint of heart!