Impression Evergreen

Somber light March has been a dreary month distinguished by somber light, ill weather and a deadly virus. During this muddy stretch, we usually get most of our sleet and snow but this year it has been all rain and drizzle. The clocks were struck ahead so twilight is later but the dawn is diffused by a morning mist that cloaks the landscape in a depressing aura. The individual shapes are broken into receding planes that gradually disappear into a blank slate of firmament. The sun strains desperately to filter its first light into an eerie woodland shrouded by dense fog. Some of the rays are funneled through narrow passages between the trees creating surreal beams that flood the forest floor. The desaturated colors are dull, the black mountains are buttressed by a tawny meadow and slags of gray snow slide across the scene. The interior is filled with a thick atmosphere of soupy moisture that softens every sharp edge. Citizens have been asked to disperse, interact socially fr

"Butterflies" Colored Pencil “Through art we can change the world.” ~ #twitterartexhibit It’s an incredible morning in September as a profusion of painted lady butterflies migrate leisurely through the Front Range Foothills. Their fluttering course seems to be at the mercy of a fickle breeze that blows down from the snow-covered divide. During the fall, the mountain landscape is ablaze in fiery color and the sudden arrival of so many butterflies stirs even more spicy tones into the mix. Out of the thousands passing through, a pair has paused to pollinate on a purple, Scotch thistle. Intentionally constructed to be a little bit larger than life, this close-cropped composition lends the scene its dramatic sense of immediacy. The tiny niche in nature’s garden is an enlarged, abstract arrangement of hard-edged shapes and saturated color. The pure pigment is brightened by the black outlines that encompass the separate sections much like a stained-glass window. A deep