10″x8″ pastel on sanded paperPlein air of fly fishing in turquoise lake. Beautiful day! My cast iron skillet awaits.
A Day at Turquoise Lake
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper, Plein AirLeadville, Colorado- 10,200′
Today was a fine day for fishing, or canoeing, or paddle boarding, or sailing, or hiking, or picnicking, or painting! 
Or just enjoying the view!
Summer’s Lace
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
Queen Anne’s Lace is my favorite wildflower. I love the way they dance along early summer roadsides.
Dallas: Inside Out – A Sailor’s Perspective
10″x8″ oil on panel
Dallas has a beautiful lake right in the center of the city. White Rock Lake. It has a path that goes all around, about 10 miles of pedaling (or running) to circumnavigate. Most of us enjoy this treasure of wildlife, beauty and community from the shores. We cook out, picnic, run, bike, play, and the lucky…paint. The sailers however, are looking back at us. They see Dallas from the inside out.
Morning Drive
The last of Summer passes
Gold and green and fair,
Gentle wind cool and sweet
Swirls through the damp warm air.
It carries not yet the chill of Autumn,
Though it is close at hand;
Verdant fields laden with grain just ripe,
Blanket the rural land.
Pastures where cattle graze,
Fields edged by stands of trees,
Farm houses blurred in the morning’s haze,
Stretches of clover dotted with bees.
Sunflowers and Queen Anne’s lace line the road
Waving in the breeze
Yet few of the people passing by
Stop to notice these.
Flowers along a barren highway,
Color beside a stretch of grey, blossoms beneath the arching blue sky,
Petals turned to greet the day.
-Ellabell
The author of this poem wrote about the things she sees on the way to school. Few people driving on the highway appreciate the natural beauty of the ordinary scenery that they see every day.
A Something in a Summer’s Day
“A something in a summer’s Day”
by Emily Dickinson
A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me.
A something in a summer’s noon —
A depth — an Azure — a perfume —
Transcending ecstasy.
And still within a summer’s night
A something so transporting bright
I clap my hands to see —
Then veil my too inspecting face
Lets such a subtle — shimmering grace
Flutter too far for me —
The wizard fingers never rest —
The purple brook within the breast
Still chafes it narrow bed —
Still rears the East her amber Flag —
Guides still the sun along the Crag
His Caravan of Red —
So looking on — the night — the morn
Conclude the wonder gay —
And I meet, coming thro’ the dews
Another summer’s Day!
Texas Summer
I am leaving all these beautiful greens for lovely New Mexican reds. The truck is loaded: 6 bikes, camping gear for 6, several totes of art supplies, and maybe even room for a toothpick or two…it is going to be a good summer! If you are along with me on this journey…we are headed to New Mexico!
“Indian Summer”
We don’t really have Indian Summer in Texas, we have cold snaps. Nevertheless, after a long, hot summer, a few warm days feel like a gift. Even in Texas, our barefoot, sundress days are numbered. We try to make today count.
INDIAN SUMMER
Emily Dickinson
These are the days when birds come back,
A very few, a bird or two,
To take a backward look.
These are the days when skies put on
The old, old sophistries of June, –
A blue and gold mistake.
Oh, fraud that cannot cheat the bee,
Almost thy plausibility
Induces my belief,
Till ranks of seeds their witness bear,
And softly through the altered air
Hurries a timid leaf!
Oh, sacrament of summer days,
Oh, last communion in the haze,
Permit a child to join,
Thy sacred emblems to partake,
Thy consecrated bread to break,
Taste thine immortal wine!
“Rainy Cloudcroft”
Cloudcroft New Mexico is perhaps my favorite place on the planet. Even this gloomy summer rain was breathtaking.
Beautiful Storm
I painted this with an underpainting that I washed in with denatured alcohol. For some reason the drips were hard to paint over in places, but it seemed to work ok with the rain in the finished painting.
paintandsimple 