Dreams of Summer

I think I must be getting tired of winter already. I've been drawn to painting images of summer. I've sat at ball games before and painted the scene at home plate. There are those few seconds during the pitch when the ump and the catcher fall into their pose and they return to it exactly throughout the game. It's a fun challenge to study them when they are down and then pop in a few strokes in between each pitch. This is the beginning of a larger studio piece, but I can still feel the energy and anticipation of each as the ball comes in. The small town ball game is something that everybody turns out for. The younger kids hang out at the backstop ready to chase the foul balls so they can turn them in at the concession stand for a freezy-pop, the smell of popcorn and the cool evening air, the crack of the ball on the bat, the sounds of the radio announcers in the booth and the parents calling out encouragement to their boys in the game, and the girls walking around hoping to be noticed...

This is another start of a studio painting from summer memories. It's a scene on a back road heading home to our farm. A storm lit by the sunset is passing to the south. Our kids avoid this road since their school bus went off the side of the hill and dropped almost 20 feet to land on its roof some years back. Not fond memories for any of us, but I find myself heading home that way just for the view.

I think I'd better get myself outside to paint this week. We've had some beautiful flops of snow and the best way to beat off the winter blues is to get out in it and take in some of the fresh muffled stillness that comes with the snow.