More WInter Field scenes

I really enjoy painting the same scene several times in different sizes. These 2 are of the "Winter Field..." series, and each has its own character. Some of my favorite paintings are the tiny ones I do with the leftover paint. I keep several small canvases on hand expressly for that purpose, and I have one collector that loves them. He always jokes that he has a small collection of my paintings.
These are the last two from that series.

Winter Field Along the Cibolo #3, Oil on canvas, 8"x10" $200, framed

Winter Field Along the Cibolo #4, Oil on Canvas, 1 1/2" x 2" NFS

Winter days

I can think of nowhere better to live than where I am in the Texas Hill country, and I can think of no better place to spend a winter either. While the Springtime yields the bursts of colors from the many wildflowers, and summer gives us the cobalt blue skies...and Autumn brings forth the reds, yellows, and purples of the many trees, Winter is truly filled with something new each day.
A typical winter week in Texas can have below-freezing weather on Monday with gray overcast skies, and by Wednesday it can be sunny and 70 degrees. And with each day, colors change, moods shift, and the sky is always a different canvas. As an artist who paints, I always have new opportunities, even with the same scene, on different days. I tried to capture a cold, overcast day in this painting. The field full of winter grass was contrasted by the always-green live oaks and the backdrop of the naked cypress trees along the Cibolo creek that runs along the bluffs of the hills in the background.
I waited for some cloudy days to compose this work. a couple of drawings, followed by a watercolor sketch, helped me capture the cool grass being blown by a north wind, and the winter treeline along the creek. The day I was doing the watercolor, I saw a herd of whitetail deer moving along the trees, including a very nice 10-point buck. I was maybe 225-250 yards from the treeline, and the wind would have been blowing my smell away from them. They never acted like I was even there.
So, I will post the watercolor and the completed painting  - well, I think it's complete, although I haven't signed it yet. Since I have today off, I might make some more tweaks to it - or maybe not. Nevertheless, today's a good day to start a new painting, so I'll go exploring to see what kind of trouble I can get into.

Study for "Winter Field along the Cibolo" watercolor on paper, 9" x 12"

"Winter Field along the Cibolo" oil on panel, 18" x 24" $860, unframed

Happy Moo year

2013. Beginning of yet another year. The funny thing about time is that, perceptually, it seems to go by faster the older we get. Realistically, though, we have the same 31,536,000 seconds in each year (31,722,400 in a leap year), and they go by at the same rate of speed, no matter how old we get. tick, tick tick tick....
What we choose to do with that time is up to each one of us individually. We each have the same 86,400 seconds in each day, no matter who we are. How many of us, though, choose to use the time to our advantage? We can pass 14,400 seconds a night (or more) watching TV - be it sports, news, or other things of no consequence. We can easily blow 7200 seconds a day on Facebook, or sending text messages. If we are lucky, we get 28,800 seconds of sleep, and most of us work another 28,800 seconds a day. That leaves roughly 7200 seconds to important, consequential, and other momentous pursuits. Most people, though, tend to use those precious seconds doing nothing, or worrying, fretting, complaining, gossiping, or being stupid. And we wonder how time gets away from us so quickly...especially as we get older.
Some of us have decided life is too short - or too long, depending on your point of view - to merely waste our seconds on trivial pursuits. I've made a decision to spend more time pursuing my passions - writing, painting, drawing, practicing my art, drinking fine wine, loving those around me, and making the rest of my life mean something more than ordinary. I don't want to reach the end of my life and realize I wasted it in front of the TV or Facebook. I, like everyone else, only have 86,400 seconds each day to be extraordinary. And when it's all said and done, I want to know it was well done.
Here are what paintings look like in the beginning.

Happy Moo Year - a pencil study for a larger painting. These little longhorns belong to a dear friend, Lora, who let me come and get them to pose for me one day. Pencil on cotton paper, 9" x 11".

Beginning of #3 of 3, "Winter Field on the Cibolo," oil on panel, 18" x 24," First painting of 2013. Not wasting any time.

If you are reading this, it means you're important to me. Give me a call or send me a note sometime this year. We only have seconds left in this life. Don't waste them.