My first year donating Secret ArtWorks: #2 of 4

Since I had trouble painting so small (7" x 5") the first year I tried to make Secret ArtWorks, I used them as an opportunity to sketch ideas for painting a bigger work during Behringer-Crawford Museum's annual FreshART fundraiser.

This is one of those. Titled "The Mason-Dixon Line," it was painted from a spot overlooking the Ohio River near Drees Pavilion in Devou Park in Covington, KY. 

When I stood atop this hill overlooking Cincinnati, Covington, and the river, I had strong memories of my parents bringing my brothers and I to a spot like this to picnic when we were little kids. Who knows, maybe we sat under this same tree? I do remember how energized and excited I was about "the big city" as a small town girl. Perhaps my love of Cincinnati started way back then, long before I moved here from the Twin Cities by way of Chicago and Toledo.