I don’t care what the calendar says – once the trees start blooming it’s spring! I just have to set aside whatever it is that I’m trying to will myself to do in honor the season. This week I was inspired by both a trip to a stormy orchard in Saratoga and a landscape painting demonstration given by Karen White at the Los Gatos Art Association. She has a stylized approach to landscapes, not a slave to local color, simplifying forms and rearranging elements at will and using large, flat brushes foe bold gestural strokes.

Well, inspiration is just that – you may start with all kind of big intentions and in the end lead your self down quite a different path, most likely one that’s very familiar. My brushes were not as big and flat as Karen’s but I was thinking in terms of texture and gesture. That is, until my love of the image overcame my desire for spontaneity.

And that’s what makes each artist unique – even when you are curious about someone else’s path you will inevitably follow you’re own!