This is what you get when you lie on the bench watching the “Clouds Go Sailing By”, instead of mowing the grass!

This is the second of three variations of this scene,
Clouds Go Sailing By
Winter's Chill

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 I originally made this picture for Mother's Day.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

How did the bridge break? Is he responsible? Can it be repaired - or is there another way over? Does he even really want to get to the other side? Is the sun rising or setting on the other side? This piece lends itself to many interpretations - and raises many questions.

“I saw plainly on the path before me … the shadow of a large hand, with knotty joints and protuberances here and there. Especially I remarked, even in the midst of my fear, the bulbous points of the fingers. I looked hurriedly all around, but could see nothing from which such a shadow should fall. I looked, and peered, and intensified my vision, all to no purpose. I could see nothing of that kind, not even an ash-tree in the neighbourhood. Still the shadow remained; not steady, but moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers close, and grind themselves close, like the claws of a wild animal, as if in uncontrollable longing for some anticipated prey …

“There seemed but one mode left of discovering the substance of this shadow. I went forward boldly, though with an inward shudder which I would not heed, to the spot where the shadow lay, threw myself on the ground, laid my head within the form of the hand, and turned my eyes towards the moon.

“Good heavens! what did I see? I wonder that ever I arose, and that the very shadow of the hand did not hold me where I lay until fear had frozen my brain. I saw the strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost transparent, in the central parts, and gradually deepening in substance towards the outside, until it ended in extremities capable of casting such a shadow as fell from the hand, through the awful fingers of which I now saw the moon. The hand was uplifted in the attitude of a paw about to strike its prey.”

—Phantastes, by George MacDonald

This Christmas-themed illustration uses several Apophysis fractals for texture. I had seen another wallpaper with hanging ornaments like this and wanted to try something similar. The golden swirl fractal is one of my particular favorites, and it worked well as an ornament design.