Multiple Projects

These are my two newest works of art.  They are about 80% done but still need a lot of work and lots of drying. The first is a painting of a Bromeliad found in tropical climates. I took this photo while walking through Waimea Falls with a friend of my mother's Carole.  My mom was supposed to come with us but once we arrived, we discovered the dogs could not come in the park, so mom went back to the beach house and Carole and I went on.  As my mom sped off leaving us in the dust, Carole looks at me and says "Well it's happend....you are finally forced into spending time with me all alone." We laughed and started the hike in to see the famous water falls.  The 4 mile hike took 3 hours because we kept stopping and taking photo's, 200 to be precise. And spending the day with Carole was one of my favorites.

The second painting was something I had painted back in 2009.  I am redoing it because everyone loves it.  But for me this painting means fear and awe.  I painted it after going through one of the worst lightning storms I have ever seen (or want to ever see).  It was a nice late July morning in North Carolina and I was sitting down to start painting and in the distance these huge clouds started rolling in.  Thinking it might storm, I checked the news.  Yes, light thunderstorms.  As I sat mixing paint the sky darkened and the world erupted.  From my Dinning room I looked out over a huge corn field.  You could see a good 4 miles.  And as I was staring out into the storm a bolt of lighting struck down on the far edge of the corn field.  Wow that was cool.  Then another struck down a little closer, then another, and another.  Then it dawned on me, those lightning strikes and slowly walking down a straight path....straight towards me.  I started freaking out and filming my eventual death.  I kept filming and by the time it was really close, I was hiding in the bathroom, with thunder so loud it was shaking the dishes in the kitchen.  Once the storm passed and I went outside, shaky, I looked for scorch marks in the grass I didn't find any but I am sure it struck near the house. That afternoon I painted this.

Thunder still makes me jump 3 feet in the air.