Finally

I finally got to my first painting in the new studio this week...ya I know, it's about time. I guess I've just been too busy finishing up old projects and paying bills.

I haven't even thought of a title yet...and it may not even be fully complete, I'm just not sure. But it certainly feels good getting back into the "studio" and not just the office!

The subject matter is one I've had an idea for some time, and one I've tread on before - a large sky of summertime clouds with a Red-tailed Hawk banking into the scene. I've fixated on Red-tails before, in fact I've fixated on them since I was 10 or 11 years old. I used to spend summer vacation afternoons out along the hills west of Fort Dodge along the Lizard Creek valley, lying on my back in someone's hillside pasture watching the clouds form and the Red-tails catching thermals and become tiny specks in the sky. Those were the days!


Fall migration was also a favorite time to watch hawks, and the other raptors pass over head. The pencil above (Fall Migration, Red-tails") was of an area near here that experiences wonderful episodes of hawks, falcons and eagles each autumn.

Well now that I have the paint out I'd better keep with it...I'm feeling rusty after the long winter of construction!