“‘Down there,’ said Golg, ‘I could show you real gold, real silver, real diamonds.’

“‘Bosh!’ said Jill rudely. ‘As if we didn't know that we're below the deepest mines even here.’

“‘Yes,’ said Golg. ‘I have heard of those little scratches in the crust that you Topdwellers call mines. But that's where you get dead gold, dead silver, dead gems. Down in Bism we have them alive and growing. There I'll pick you bunches of rubies that you can eat and squeeze you a cup full of diamond-juice. You won't care much about fingering the cold, dead treasures of your shallow mines after you have tasted the live ones of Bism.’”
— C.S.Lewis, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair”, Chapter 14, “The Bottom of the World”

I took the fractal I used in Storms of Life and played with it, rotating, recoloring, adding layers, etc., and ended up with something that looks rather like a combination between a gravity well and a lightning storm.

This peaceful landscape was originally for a 3D Environment competition. I didn't win, but it was the first time I felt that I could make an image worth entering. The competition didn't allow for any postwork, but afterward I edited it to give a watercolor effect.

I found this buttercup buried in the grass on my grandfather's Christmas tree farm, off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Fancy Gap, Virginia, the same place as Appalachian Green and How the Grass Grows

Frodo and his friends are leaving the Shire secretly by going west into the Old Forest, instead of north to the road. The Forest is reached through a break in the Hedge used to keep the unfriendly trees out of the Shire …

“It had walls of brick at the sides, which rose steadily, until suddenly they arched over and formed a tunnel that dived deep under the Hedge and came out in the hollow on the other side.

“It was dark and damp. At the far end it was closed by a gate of thick-set iron bars. On the far side was a faint path leading up on to the floor of the Forest; but it vanished as soon as it brought them under the trees.”
— The Lord of the Rings, Book I, Chapter 6

A closer look at the field seen in Appalachian Green.

I took this photograph at my grandfather's Christmas tree farm, off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Fancy Gap, Virginia. It had been a rainy, foggy day, and the sky was still grey, so I replaced it with a Vue-generated one. Here's the original shot for the curious.

Some single-petal red roses that my dad grows.

One of my earlist landscapes made in Vue. I originally made this picture for Mother's Day. It's the kind of solitary, quiet place I would love to relax. This has sometimes been mistaken for a fall picture in spite of the flowers and green grass, but it's supposed to be a Japanese maple, which has red or burgundy leaves in the spring.

I made three seasonal variations of this scene,
Clear Autumn Day
Winter's Chill

For this piece I took the same ZaoS fractal I had embossed for Rubies & Gold and laid it over a green Apophysis fractal design. The result was a calmer image that reminded me of the light patterns - caustics - under rippling water. The pearl seemed an appropriate addition.