Low Tide Sunset

It continues to be a struggle to find inspiration to paint, but I created something today, so that's progress. It's a quiet scene at a muddy beach during low tide; the sun sets on the distant horizon as fiery clouds float overhead. Nothing over-the-top, but it's still a painting and thus a statement against the grief of my mom's passing. What tangles my paintings with her memory is that she would buy greeting cards each year with prints of my paintings on them, and that just won't happen again, sadly. 

I've been thinking about experimenting more with my painting style and trying new approaches to landscapes. It can be a challenge to find something new to say in a landscape when you've been painting them for so long. Paintings blur together and there's the burden of wanting things to be realistic enough to be recognizable, but you don't want "realism" to turn into stress - painting should be fun, not homework. 

I also sometimes wonder how artists develop their own unique styles. Does style just happen or do they one day put a paintbrush to the canvas and do something completely different than normal, and if it works, they keep going with that approach? It's hard to say. Countless books will teach how to create good landscape paintings, but it seems that style can't be taught, and everyone must find a way to make the process fun and not work. Stuff to think about.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Apricot Roses in Rain

 

It's been an awful year so far and I've struggled to find inspiration to paint anything. But giving up doesn't fix the problem, either, so I gave it a whirl today. This painting is a fanciful tribute to roses, particularly those with flowers of apricot and mixed yellows and pinks. Here, we see an ancient climbing rose cover an arbor in bloom on a rainy day. I kept the background abstract as I experiment with looser painting styles and larger blends or blocks of color. I think it worked out pretty well for a spur-of-the-moment effort to paint something.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

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"

Early Snow in the Woods

Some parts of the nation have seen rather early snowfall and frosty autumn days more appropriate to the middle of winter. While it's been cold and gloomy here in central Maryland, we have thankfully been spared any early season snow. In this scene we can go for a walk in the woods as a light coating of snow dusts the brown leaves still clinging to the trees. I hope this winter is milder than the last one.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Bodkin Creek in Fall

Bodkin Creek is a small stream that flows through parts of Downs Memorial Park and then into the Chesapeake Bay. It barely gets a mention on a map, and you'd have to know where to look for it, but like all rivers and streams it's full of life and beautiful, particularly in the fall. Here we see the creek on a late autumn afternoon in Downs Memorial Park. The low sun casts long shadows and only illuminates the tops of the trees or those along the riverbank. Everything else is lost in shadow as a cold breeze passes through, rattling the drying leaves. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Lunar Eclipse Over Mountains

 

Lunar eclipses are considerably more common than solar eclipses, but that doesn't make them any less beautiful or eerie. In the snowy peaks of a distant mountain range, we see the moon turn a deep orange hue as Earth's shadow passes over it. The snow reflects the light, the only warmth in this frigid winter landscape. 

Acrylic painting 14" x 17"

Gulf of Mexico Sunset

 

As summer winds to a close, we must be respectful of nature's power. The days grow shorter but hurricane season still looms as a threat. Here, we see the sun set along an empty, grassy beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The sky is heavy with grey clouds that threaten torrential rain. Or perhaps the storm has passed, and better weather is on its way? The cycles of nature are eternal, beautiful, but also uncaring about humanity's expectations. Enjoy the moment for it is ever-changing.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Orange Coneflower Sunrise

It's well into summer now in the Mid-Atlantic region, and all the flowers are in bloom. Here we see a clump of orange coneflowers up close as we look across a flower-filled meadow at sunrise. Light gleams across the grass and wildflowers as clouds part and the sun rises. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Paving Over Paradise

The latest in corrupt idiocy from the Trump administration is a plan to sell off over two hundred million acres of public land to assorted connected private interests. Excuses for stealing this land from the American people include "affordable housing" in the middle of nowhere and mineral and fossil fuel extraction to make a quick a buck while continuing to warp the climate. Nothing will get better until there's nothing left, it seems. The exact location depicted here doesn't matter, but if you feel the view would be better without the barbed wire fencing and smoke-spewing refinery, that's the point, and the cynical greed and cruelty of this administration is costing us far more than just pretty views. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Moonlit Cherry Blossoms

As final tribute this year to the cherry blossoms that have long since faded, here we see a gnarled old cherry tree in the light of the full moon. Its limbs and flowers are backlit by the pale light, long shadows are cast, and pink petals glow like sparks in the blur of night. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Gnarled Cherry Trees

Spring has arrived in the Mid Atlantic, and flowering trees light up the woodland edges and highways in pastel colors. Here, we see a small grove of old, gnarled cherry trees by a lake. Their trunks and limbs are twisted and scarred from age, but they continue to bloom each year with explosions of pinks and whites. In this fleeting moment, let us enjoy spring!

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Denali Reflections

It's been a typical winter here in Maryland, with snow, ice, and a bad cold spell in January. As we wait for spring, let us visit a place where winter lasts about half the year. Denali, in Alaska, is the tallest mountain in North America, and its peak is often shrouded in clouds. Here we see it looming above one of many local lakes and rivers carved by glaciers, its proud crown illuminated by the setting sun. Warm light hints of better days to come.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Regaining the Light

The holiday season is finishing up and it's now 2025. The winter solstice was a little over a week ago, and slowly but surely the days are growing longer. Here we see the sun rise across a snowy northern forest of conifers. Light gleams through the trees, hinting at the still distant spring. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17" 

Exoplanet - Red Dwarf Transit

Things have been going rather poorly on Earth lately (in America in particular), so this painting takes us someplace far away. We stand on a slushy, terrestrial planet at the outer reaches of its star's habitable zone. The sun here is a blazing red dwarf that looms above us, casting a ruddy, warm glow across snowy hills and a cold lake. Other worlds dance through their orbits in the sky, with one planet transiting the star as we watch. Total eclipses cannot happen here, but transits of other planets are a regular occurrence. To put it in perspective, a star system around a red dwarf is about the same size as the moon system around Jupiter, so with little optical aid, one could see details on the other worlds. Red dwarf stars live a very long time, so perhaps life will evolve someday on this cold planet.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Old Autumn Sycamores

As fall spreads over the land, a chill breeze starts to turn the leaves to fiery colors and the grass to dried earth tones. Here, we see a pair of old sycamores at the edge of a scrubby forest. These ancient guardians have been here far longer than the young trees around them, and they face yet another coming winter stoically. Low light plays across their gnarled, pale trunks, and their leaves glow with copper colors before blowing away in the cold wind.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Rocky Autumn Foothills

 
When we think of autumn, the most common images that come to mind are the fiery colors of New England or the golden aspens in the high elevations of the west. This painting explores a different region. Here, we see the cottonwood trees in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains as they turn yellow in the chill autumn air. Every tree is precious here, for dry grasslands are the norm, and the change of seasons is always beautiful even in unexpected places. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Fleeting Summer Days

 
As August rolls on, the days are becoming shorter, and summer is winding down. Back to school sales are in full swing, and the first fall leaves can be seen on a few vines and understory trees here and there. But for now, let us enjoy one last day at the beach, far from work and crowds. Watch the sun swing low amid a cloudy sky, illuminating the waves in gleaming light.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Waterlily Trail

 

As the summer heat grows beneath a blazing sun, let us visit a marshland where the water flows and droughts aren't a worry. Here in lazy stream, waterlilies bloom in pink and reddish hues, catching the summer sun. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Dusty Prairie Storm

 

Spring this year throughout most of the US has been plagued by severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flooding. Summer has now begun, bringing with it a terrible heat wave and early tropical storms. As bad as the severe weather is, storms can bring rain to drought-stricken regions, and they are beautiful when they are not dangerous. Here, we see some late afternoon thunderstorms billowing over the dry hills and grasslands typical of the plains and western US. 

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"