Fort McHenry Cherry Trees

 

2026 has been a horrible year so far. My mom passed away in early February after months of decline, and her loss has been crushing. The bitterly cold winter produced a huge sleet and snowstorm in January that damaged my home (at least that's fixed now) and killed all the plants I had in containers outside. Sometimes it feels like there will never be another good day ever again. It has been difficult to find any inspiration to paint, but I gave it a go today.

On Friday, I visited Fort McHenry while the cherry blossoms were in bloom - their peak time is about a week later than those in Washington DC. The historic fort is worth exploring and you can easily spend a few hours walking the grounds and learning the history of the place. The cherry trees added a nice blast of spring color to the scene, which I tried to represent in this painting. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Sunfire on Snow

It's been a miserably cold winter so far in central Maryland, though thankfully this year has brought very little snow so far. This fictional scene is of a colder place where snow covers both the ground and many conifer trees all winter. The fiery light of the rising or setting sun is the only warmth offered here until spring. This painting is a bit of an experiment since I intentionally created it looser than most of my paintings. It has larger blocks of unblended color for a more impressionist feel. I also swapped the red and yellow iron oxides out with Pyrrole and Cadmium Free Yellow Deep. Those new colors will provide brighter and purer red and yellow colors at the cost of a bit of opacity. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"