". . . a brush with nature"

You never know just how, where or when the spark of inspiration will ignite. A recent example comes to mind when inspiration and opportunity came together perfectly to produce two pieces that had been simply vague ideas lurking in the back of my mind for years -incomplete concepts for paintings I would like to do "sometime."

I have always been fascinated with the American Civil War and wondered how I might incorporate that interest into my work. It was not until I recently saw a prospectus that it finally became clear to me. Of course! The focus had to be on the horses of that particular time in our history.

I had no reference photos to work from, so I set out to find a reenactment, hopefully well before the submission deadline for the show. Amazingly there was one scheduled within a few weeks relatively close to home. This is where opportunity met inspiration!

I was able to get wonderful photos to work from, saw a great reenactment put on by dedicated folks who really know a lot about history specific to the time and learned even more than I could have ever hoped to. Combining all those elements produced two pastel pieces I am proud of . . . finally, after such a long wait.
I have no idea if my paintings will be accepted in the show or not, but my longtime dream of creating these works has finally been met. I am pleased to have accomplished it.