This study was taken in the pond near the entrance to
the Chateau Montelana in Napa Valley.

An Old Farm on the way to Taos, lost in time.

A 2.6 mile climb up the Smoky's to see this wonder.

I was on an assignment in Oak Ridge Tennessee.  One Sunday the order was given to stand down for the day. My wife was on a two week sabbatical in the north east so I wasn’t going to fly home for the day. Rather, I drove the rental car out of Knoxville and down into the northern end of the Smoky National Park. Soon, I was down near Gatlinburg on Old State Highway 73 when I saw a sign on the side of the twisting road for a walking trail up the mountains to Laurel Falls. 2.6 miles later I came to the base of the magnificent cascading falls. It was worth the climb.

A 2.6 mile climb up the Smoky's to see this wonder.

I was on an assignment in Oak Ridge Tennessee. One Sunday the order was given to stand down for the day.  My wife was on a two week sabbatical in the north east so I wasn’t going to fly home for the day. Rather, I drove the rental car out of Knoxville and down into the northern end of the Smoky National Park. Soon, I was down near Gatlinburg on Old State Highway 73 when I saw a sign on the side of the twisting road for a walking trail up the mountains to Laurel Falls. 2.6 miles later I came to the base of the magnificent cascading falls. It was worth the climb.

A summer's day in the Cove.

Sailors enjoy a summer of boating from Southwest Harbor, Maine. Summer is short and they know they have to make the best use of it before the cold winds move in and freeze the waters. Tourists drive by oblivious to the tension of the season.

A summer's day near Somesville Pond and Museum, Maine.

Close to Somes Harbor, beside a mill pond, the Somesville Historical Museum is surrounded by woodland gardens and beds of 19^th – and 20^th – century heirloom flowering plants and herbs.  My eye caught the Monet-like bridge and reflective pond next to the small white museum building. The scene along with the Plein Air artist painting below me gives the viewer a rich contrast if they cross the street and see the rough rocky coast line shown in my Southport Lighthouse painting.

The old neighbors  share the waning moments of
their lives with Mother Nature's fall.

A drive through the Smokey’s in the fall offers incredible local countryside and the natural jubilance of foliage turning magically in the decline towards winter of bright reds, oranges and yellows. This scene finds an old couple and their dog relaxing in front of their decrepit barn and a deteriorating tractor. The smell of old oil dripping from the front of the tractor wafts in the breeze with the crisp smell of the turning leaves.

A summer's day near Southport, Maine.

A summer day near South Port, Maine. A beautiful girl picks wild flowers in a field near the old barns. In the distance to the left a deer and her doe watch the girl pick handfuls of the beautiful flowers.

The rocky shore and cold sea invite an unexpected rainbow
Based on a photograph taken on the 17 Mile Drive between
Monterey and Carmel.

There is a beautiful seventeen mile drive from Monterey, California south to Carmel, the town in which Clint Eastwood lives and was the Mayor of twenty years ago. This scene is on the shore just north of the famous Pebble Beach Golf Country Club. The cold water below this lovely old Mexican style home heats the stormy air above into a perfect rainbow giving a glow to the old boulders.

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A dark and stormy night on the trail down to the shore

The Southport shoreline walk up to the Bass Head Lighthouse is rather steep and requires a good pair of hiking shoes and a decent amount of agility. The scene looking up at this little lighthouse that has served sailors for over a hundred years makes the climbing it takes getting there very worthwhile. The rugged rocks originally formed by the Ice Age lay in slabs against one another like coffins from the distant past.