This is the kind of still water I'd like to rest beside. I got the idea swinging in my hammock and looking at a red maple. For some reason both the red maples in my yard hang down in a “weeping” shape. But I don't have a pond in my yard for them to hang over - that part came from my imagination.

I decided to do a summer version of my Winter Leaves work.

I recently studied more in depth about how to work with clouds in the digital art software that I use, and it left me inspired to do a scene in the clouds instead of my usual landscapes. Would you like to be in that hot-air balloon?

I love red in a winter landscape. And I love ice in the sunlight. Every winter I want to do a picture with ice, but until now I haven't been able to get the effect I was looking for. This time I think it finally turned out right.

Happy New Year!

If you follow the path in Welcome to the Cwm down to the bonfire and look to the right, you might see the Northern Lights.

Christmas in the cottage in the cwm, featuring my mom's cat, Pearlie. This is my digital artwork, not a photograph except for the cat.

This is the kind of place I like to walk in the fall and winter, with little secluded hollows and pools covered with fallen leaves and the warm autumn afternoon sun.

I have a maple tree in my yard that sometimes turns these colors in the fall - red on the outer leaves, then yellow, and the inner leaves still green. Other years, though, it just turns yellow. Then it's more like the tree in my Autumn Guardian.

This is the reverse of my Cwm Waterfall image, this time from behind the waterfall (and it's late summer rather than spring). This perspective was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's description from the chapter "The Window on the West" in The Lord of the Rings.

“They stood on a wet floor of polished stone, the doorstep, as it were, of a rough-hewn gate of rock opening dark behind them. But in front a thin veil of water was hung, so near that Frodo could have put an outstretched arm into it. It faced westward. The level shafts of the setting sun behind beat upon it, and the red light was broken into many flickering beams of ever-changing colour. It was as if they stood at the window of some elven-tower, curtained with threaded jewels of silver and gold, and ruby, sapphire and amethyst, all kindled with an unconsuming fire.”

I created a version of this picture several years ago, but I never posted it because I wasn't quite satisfied. So I decided to take another look and polish it a bit. I ended up changing more than I had intended, but I'm pretty happy with it now. Here's the earlier version.

I love sitting outside around dusk and watching the fireflies!