Impression Evergreen

Noble Meadow I’m enjoying our warmer temperatures but if it gets too hot, I feel uncomfortable. I actually don’t mind the wet and cold so I savor being out in stormy weather observing the wonderful lighting effects. I can stand the heat and certainly the chill but there’s one annoying element that drives me crazy and indoors. It’s the ferocious west wind that whips down from the white mountains and batters the foothills. The raging mistral is making its annual appearance as its the driving force ushering in spring. The windy season usually lasts for a couple of weeks but this year it seems to have been blowing for more than a month. Every morning the early light is blemished by a murky haze that veils the normally blue sky. The relentless gale has disrupted the peaceful atmosphere causing the local wildlife to be constantly on edge. The unstoppable breeze is born in the big peaks and funneled down through Noble Meadow like a runaway locomotive. You can find some relief by

Snowy Stagecoach Hollow If you follow a crooked road west, heading towards the row of blue mountains charged with procuring the setting sun, you'll discover a steep canyon carved by a ribbon of black ice. The secluded glen is called Stagecoach Hollow. Local legend has it that a tenacious mistral prowls the area bedeviling visitors. Winter snow creates a monochrome landscape where white aspen contrast with the dark pine. Because the rugged terrain is a mosaic of mud, rocks, snow and ice, navigation requires the nimbleness of a goat. Howling like a ghostly demon, the relentless wind chased us down into the brooding forest. The mysterious sanctuary was a tangle of gnarled tree trunks and broken limbs. Confined to a murky chasm during the December dusk, a daunting staircase was the only way out. The stiff breeze kept pace, whirling through the treetops and over cliff edges like an insane daredevil. Across a footbridge and finally back up top, a final blast of blowing snow st

"Wheat Field with Cypresses after van Gogh" Colored Pencil It's a warm, sunny day in southern France. Boiling clouds drift across the turquoise sky and the indigo cypresses are windswept by the notorious mistral. The golden wheat field is ripe and ready for harvest. The picture is a magnificent expression of summer. It draws you in. I can almost feel the wind and the heat. In my head, I can hear the buzz of locusts announcing the change of seasons. This is one of my favorite paintings and I wanted to understand why. I decided to make a study after it but not an oil painting copy. I chose a different medium instead, colored pencil. "The study I have intended for you depicts a group of cypresses in the corner of a wheat field on a summer's day when the mistral is blowing. It is therefore the note of a certain blackness enveloped in blue moving in great circulating currents of air, and the vermilion of the poppies contrasts with the black note." ~ Vincen