Winter Views - Pinchot Forest, S. Asheville

I was born and raised in Santa Barbara, CA. I never heard of the term "winter views" until my wife and I started looking to relocate to Asheville in 2005.

In the Blue Ridge Mountains, each season has its delight. Spring brings waves of new growth and wild flowers. Summer has its long warm lazy evenings with fireflies and cicadas. Fall has the brilliant color of the changing foliage. And in Winter, after the leaves have fallen, opens up the long vistas that were previously obscured by the vegetation.

From Pinchot Forest, there are many handsome views (in all seasons) but this one is one of my favorites, since the road winding down the mountain creates a clearing in trees.

Winter Views - 14 x 18 inches, Acrylic on Canvas

Sketchbook - Week 1, 2010

Here are a few pages from my pocket sketchbook, from the first week in 2010. One of my resolutions is to draw in my sketchbook daily. I'll post collections of recent drawings from time to time. It looks like I only have one more blank page. Time to get a new Moleskine sketchbook!

Tom Sgouros - Painter's "Scales"

One of my professors at RISD was Tom Sgouros. I remember him with a great deal of respect. He valued hard work and expected no less from his students. One of the things that I recall, was his analogy of painters to musicians, and the need for both to practice their art diligently. One of the exercises that he undertook personally, was to do a daily painting of a bicycle horn. He would paint the same subject over and over, looking for new things, trying to resolve the composition in a slightly different way. He referred to this as doing his "scales." Like a professional musician who spends time every day to exercise his craft, Sgouros' daily color sketch of the bike horn did a few things. 1.) It loosened up his "art muscles" 2.) It disciplined him to paint daily. 3.) It forced him to find new solutions for an old problem 4 .) it reminded him that he hadn't yet arrived; he still had room to grow and things to learn.

It's been almost two decades since I was in art school, but Tom Sgouros' "Scales" lesson is one that sticks with me.