Current Art Inspiration

Is it actually switching up styles or just color palettes, or maybe just relaxing on stressing about every detail? Right now I’m moving back into creating paintings to invoke those positive emotions art can elicit and exploring bright colors more than just a perfected representational scene.

For the last year, I had focused on green forest paths and hiking trails from different locations, lighting and canvas sizes. The forests in Canada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado etc. Fern lined trails, creeks, rivers, mountain views and deep forest paths.

Now in my normal January-April regular pattern of dreaming of the ocean and painting the colors of sunset over the water from all my previous years worth of travel photos. Sunsets of vivid oranges and blues. 

Just completed a few new colorful lake scenes, I’m now working on a larger triptych ocean islands landscape from Vancouver Island. With a lot of blue water and green island trees and mountains. Inspired by a collection of photos from my last surf trip to Tofino where I flew in a De Havilland Beaver Sea Plane to some natural hotsprings along the remote forested coast of Vancouver Island in West Canada.

Although its nice to paint the actual exact detailed representation of a scene, I found in my quest to try to improve in realism painting these last few years and doing more Plein air, I lost those bright happy magical colors I painted before. And the general feeling of my art wasn't giving those positive vibes as before. My paintings had taken on a darkness, a realness, this past year and Im ready to return to the light and that magical inner brightness. A glow from within, that vibration of healing, or at least a warmth and positive feeling. I'm trying to return to incorporating more bright colors into each painting again, to lean more towards "impressionistic" painting again, while still incorporating details and a few natural colors.

So before Plein air painting season begins soon and the green grass and tree leaves come back, I recreate my photos from colorful travels near water. As I always long to return to the ocean someday. Heres a recent lake painting that is featured in American Art Collector Magazine's June edition.

"Summer View" 2025 Oil on Canvas 20x16" Shop Link

Interested in paintings of Planes? I offer commisions and have painted a few airplane scenes recently. Here's one that's still available, "Into The Light" shop page link here.

And for original oil paintings of lakes, rivers and water scenes, check out the Originals page and also the Limited Edition Prints available in the shop, link here.

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