9" x 12" acrylic on paper

Well - this doesn't look anything at all like it does outside here in Kansas City.  And  I certainly wouldn't have been painting outside today - it's WAY too cold and snowy!!!  This red painting was done "en plein air" - that means outside! - on a vacation in northeastern Oklahoma a few months ago.  The painting actually doesn't look anything at all like the setting where we were in Oklahoma either.  Except there were beautiful pine trees around a lake.  Don't ya love art!!!  My husband and I went on a painting picnic and I did a series of six 9" x 12" paintings using this loose style - made possible by a pallete knife.  And a little wine . . . .  SOOOO fun!  So spontaneous.  I had a palette full of of red paints - left over from a class that I taught.  So my little "exercise" that day was to do some funky interpretations of my surroundings, using mainly the paint on my palette - ie, lots of reds!  I'll post more of them over the next few days.  It's fun to see how creative you can get when you set some unusual limits - like using the paint that's already there.  I didn't have enough blues to do a blue sky - and that would have been so predictable!  So instead we have a red sky and ground and a blue tree.  Woo hoo!!

And - red is the color of the season!!!  At least one of them.  Red and green - looks just like Christmas!

Okay - that's a stretch.  I did indeed enjoy painting this on a beautiful day - I hope your day and your thoughts for this season are beautiful, too.