Painting ideas swirl around in my head like leaves in a dust devil.  There are always multiple paintings in progress.  Most of these use photos I have taken as source materials.  Although I may use the photos as a painting source the finished painting is usually very different from the photo.  See the blog Painting from Photos for an example. 

Currently I have four paintings in progress.  Two are watercolors, two are oil paintings.  The two wood ducks I surprised near the Mississippi River in Dubuque, IA on the way back to St. Petersburg in September, 2023.  Mr. Wood Duck probably sprained his neck when he woke up and saw me.

The other watercolor I took in Arches National Park, Utah.  It is of light coming through the formation known as The Windows.  Suffice it to saw there will be much more light coming through the windows I paint.

The two other photos are sources for two oil paintings in progress.   Both photos were taken from The Alabama Hills, a section of rounded rocks and eroded, jagged formations at the base of the Sierra Nevadas and at the base of Mt. Whitney., near Lone Pine, CA.  The view is looking east to another another mountain range, the Inyos.  Mount Whitney, at 14,505,  is the highest peak in the continental U.S.  The Inyos are no shorties either, reaching near 12,000 feet above the Owens Valley, which lies at an average 3,700.  It gives you a crick in your neck to look at either range.  And the two ranges are only 12 miles apart. 

The pointed rocks in the first photo I call "The Wizards,"  a formation I found fascinating. Does anyone else see Gandalf here?   In the second image I want to emphasize the smallness of the green trailer in the sea of big sage brush and the distance down to the valley and across to the Inyos.