A look below the surface of the river that has been seen in others of my scenes in the cwm.

Cwm Solitude
Welcome to the Cwm
Cwm Waterfall
Window on the Cwm

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 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.

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 had the idea and made a picture like this back in 2011 when I was fairly new to Vue software and 3D landscapes in general. Since I've gotten more experience I've been thinking for some time of redoing it. I love miniatures! Here's the earlier version.

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 like to get plenty of use out of settings once I build them, so this render is around the corner to the left of my Cwm Solitude scene. I wanted to create a waterfall in the scene itself - often they're just a flat plane with a waterfall image that placed in the scene, or the waterfall is added later in PhotoShop. But this is an actual 3D waterfall that works from different angles. Eventually I hope to do another picture looking the opposite direction down the stream into the valley.

Sunrise over the Nottely River in western North Carolina.

Although we tend to think of it more in the summer, the ocean is there all year.

This was inspired by the Disney short film “Piper”.