Trees are taking on increasing importance in my paintings this summer: here's one that I just did as a quick study for a "family tree" painting I'm doing with the names on all the tree branches (and some leaves).

Since Thursday, I've been polishing up the trees in a portrait I'm doing of a Cape Cod home in Lebanon, Ohio. Trees are also finding their ways into many of the daily paintings and drawings I'm doing lately. Becoming more and more intruigued with them since the few days I camped at Camp Glen among forests with trees that must be hundreds of years old.

Last night, I ate my first roasting ear of corn on the cob this season; superb!

Checked out my sister-in-law's childhood friend's work while in Charleston SC and was very inspired by Laurie Meyer's paintings: check them out at http://www.lauriemeyer.com/. As always, the web site doesn't do justice to the real work, especially my favorite painting in the top left corner which is very large, textured and full of "juicy" color.

This is a quick color sketch of a home portrait I'm working on in Wyoming OH; the actual size of this little acrylic painting is about 6 x 9 inches, a size that looks great in a standard size 11 x 14 frame with a pre-cut matte in it. Wanted to paint with the palette knife out the kitchen window this am but too busy catching up after the vacation trip. Still processing all the inspiring sights and know they'll work their way into my painting.

Have done more looking than painting the past few days, having traveled back to the summer camp I attended every summer while growing up. The beauty of nature there struck me and I have some photos to work with once commitments to others have been fulfilled. The tall beech trees, sunlight filtering into ravines, and starlit nights were spectacular.

This week, an adventure to a place on the Atlantic seacoast where I've never been; so I'll be doing more looking, and maybe drawing, than painting until next week.

This acrylic painting decorated a set for Disney Channel's "What a Life!" television program yesterday and I got to watch filming: a first for me! The episode is about a friend and his 9 year old son who are pet detectives: the boy proudly told me they've located over half of the lost pets they've been asked to find.

I was fascinated by the parallels between the visual language of filmmaking and what I do as a painter. For example, in pre-production, the director of this episode took photos of frames or shots he wanted and then worked with an artist to draw story boards for the written script. At his direction, the story board artist moved trees around and removed things just like I do when working with reference photos of a subject.

But thank goodness I don't have to coordinate with sound in my work; that looked difficult. But the crew seemed to really enjoy collaborating, the way I do with people who commission me to do paintings for them. All in all, a great day, and I learned a lot, even though I didn't paint.

Here's a drawing I did yesterday from some photos I received from a client. This particular shot has a lot of potential for a painting; and it's a beautiful home, isn't it? At Kevin McPherson's lecture in Middletown this spring, I noted the following quote "As the soul is intangible in the human body, so is art in a painting. But we recognize when it is missing."

For me, this is so true! And this particular scene already has a lot of soul in it to inspire me, so I enjoyed drawing it. I see so much artwork that is technically proficient but lacking soul. Doing that does not interest me.

Onto Fourth of July festivities this weekend; Happy Independence Day!