Artist's Inspiration

If you asked 10 different artists where they get their inspiration from you'd probably get 10 different answers. I believe that artists are always being inspired by their surroundings either consciously or unconsciously. People usually choose to live in a surrounding that they find interesting or exciting in some capacity. City people like the vibrant social and cultural stimulation that is readily available in a city. Country folk like natural landscape, animals and the sky for instance.
I didn't paint nature until I moved to Arden, DE. When I moved here from center city Philadelphia it was like coming home. I grew up in a rural area and spent hours walking or just daydreaming in and around fields, lakes and rivers. Summers were spent literally living on our family boat. What a great way to grow up. My inspiration is nature and it never ceases to amaze me and stop me in my tracks. I'm really inspired by seasons in nature, the way a familiar landscape is always changing. I like the way you can see more of the sky in the winter and the way the bare branches look against the sky. Just in the past few weeks I took these photos of the sky through my skylights.

Here's my kitty named Winter, looking out at the snow. She showed up at our door 2 years ago in the winter and once she got a taste of the warm indoors she wasn't going anywhere.

This is a painting of a winter landscape inspired by how the sky looks through the trees when the sun is lowering on a hazy winter day. If you click on the title you'll see the progression of this painting, and how it evolved layer by layer. It took 14 layers before I called it done.
The link takes you to my progression page to see Winter Sky you have to click on it, it's the last one on the list.

Winter Sky

It is hard to know when to stop and sometimes I want to take it off the wall and add more trees or something. Hmm, I feel a winter series coming on.