Just outside my door is art inspiration! The last couple of days have been pretty spectacular all the snow and our river is beautiful and very inspirational. The snow storm dumped around eight inches here in Shoshone. So I thought I would share with you some of the wonderful scenery just outside of my back door and a few from a trip to Ketchum, Idaho on Thanksgiving day. For some reason how the light was shining through the trees fascinated me and I hope to capture them to use for reference in one of my upcoming art quilt projects. Taking pictures with the sun shinning is a challenge because you never know quite how they will turn out. Also taking pictures in bright light is tricky. Reading the led screen on my notebook and cannon digital camera with my glasses that go dark in the sun resulted in pretty much is a practice in being a blind photographer. I literally couldn’t see a thing. What I figured out though, was I was a better photographer without my brain getting the in way. I had to trust that the shots were good since I couldn’t see them till I went inside and let my glasses clear up. Thanksgiving morning was very inspirational as I opened the curtains in my sunroom and as you can see what a fantastic view. Our dog Newfy is in love with snow and pretty much would stay outside in it all day long. Even this morning when it was only three degrees she didn’t want to come in. Back to being an artist that wants to paint a snow scene someday, well you just can’t get enough pictures of how things look in the snow. I remember my mom’s twin sister giving me lessons in snow painting 15 years ago. She was a great snow picture watercolor artist. Anyway she used ultramarine blue paint. She said that would be better then shades of grey to get definition. Maybe it is because snow kind of reflects the sky like water does. Well I guess snow is made out of water so it made sense at the time. I tried it and like the results. The start of the snow season always thrills me. I was raised in southern California about five miles from the beach and didn’t see snow till I was 19 years old. When I moved to Idaho I was 21 and the first snow storm was on October 1st and it snowed 3 ft and then rained for two days and melted it. I still remember the first day it snowed with big fluffy flakes falling from the sky and it is was so quite outside as the clouds seem to block out all the extra sounds. Here it is 40 years later and while I have no desire to romp around in the snow anymore I still love the impact of a storm. Looking at snow with an artist eyes I notice how the ice crystal form on the trees and branches in our back yard and how the river freezes over in stages. Today when I came into the art studio there was little snowshoe rabbit tracks by where I parked. I guess it is the patterns in the snow that are so intriguing. Well I hope you enjoyed these shots and that they inspire you to do some snow scenes in your future art quilting projects. Let me know how you feel about the snow, would love to hear about it….Karen