#68 - A Bug's Life

6" x 6" Oil on canvas panel

My favorite car was a white 1969 VW Beetle. I bought it the summer before my junior year in college and worked on it every day to make it road worthy for the trip from home outside Boston to my fraternity house in Indiana. When the departure day arrived, my dad and I gave the car one last once-over and I took off. After only one side-of-the-road repair, I arrived at school 20 hours later and spent the next few hours unpacking and telling everyone I encountered about my amazing new German sports car. That evening, at a 'Welcome Back' party at the fraternity, I was stopped by a girl I did not know who said, "I heard you got a new sports car." And I replied, "Yeah, do you want a ride?" It's been quite a ride, now 34 years later. Maureen and I have had many cars, but that little white bug will always be #1.

#67 - Spring Training for Wrigley

8" x 10" Oil on canvas panel

A few weekends ago it was unseasonably warm and Maureen and I took our dog, Wrigley, to the conservation area. With the warm air and snow on the ground, the fog was thick. We walked for 90 minutes with Wrigley off leash and she loved every minute.

#66 - Sunrise Commute

8" x 10" Oil on canvas panel

I was on my way to work recently and the sunrise was spectacular. I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture and painted it this week. The picture appealed to me because of the wide range of colors and depth of the shot.

#65 - Frost's Road

8" x 10" Oil on canvas panel, plein air

It was 40F yesterday in northern Illinois and I was so happy to be outside painting again. I drove into the countryside and encountered this vista and a line from Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' popped into my head (Thank you, Mrs. Ellen Eberly, Westwood High School). "Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear..."

The late afternoon sky was fighting to clear and let some sun in but it never succeeded, so the colors remained somewhat muted.  It would be a great place to set up in the spring and perhaps paint it again on a 8" x 16" canvas to capture a bit more of the horizon..."Yet knowing how way leads to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

#64 - Home

8" x 16" Oil on primed linen panel

We live on some wetlands and I like the way our house looks from across the pond out back. I took the picture this was painted from last spring before the grass got tall and some of the previous year's grass was dried and evident. Our three boys loved playing back in the pond catching frogs and turtles, and this is the view they grew up with.

#63 - Apple Jack

6" x 6" Oil on gessobord

I came across one of my dad's old jack knives the other day that I acquired when my mom and dad downsized a couple years ago. He always has a knife in his pocket and I have fond childhood memories of him digging it out of his pocket to either cut some garden twine, tighten a screw, open a bottle of pop for me (or a beer for himself) or cut up and apple.

#62 - Winter Tulip

6" x 6" Oil on gessobord

We had a very warm December in northern Illinois and one mild Saturday afternoon we sat on our neighbor's porch and enjoyed a bourbon in a nice glass. I took a picture and thought it might be a good subject to paint.