Wishing you, your family and friends a warm, healthy and happy holiday season. I had to reach back pretty far to find a celebratory image and this one is certainly dear to my heart. This was my first camel named Gobi. My townhouse couldn’t accommodate him but he was such a joy for years. I added a second camel – “Butterscotch” and they supported my farm in becoming a destination point in my community and broader environs. Finally, it was time for me to begin a new phase of my life, one that focused on my photography and painting. I didn’t even have to look for a new home for them. A couple showed up at my farm one night wanting them. The couple had a large and wonderful farm in a town near to me. Ultimately that became their new home.

I tried all week to create a new painting. I was excited to do so. It was a landscape. After 4 days of painting, it was only an hour ago that I looked at it and recognized it was “un-showable”. It’s always good practice no matter the outcome. After all, I’ve practiced very little painting landscapes. Some day, I’ll try again. Recently, however, I came upon an image I created from imagination years ago when still painting digitally. I’ve always loved it. Below: It’s just a “feel good” digital painting I wanted to share to hopefully feel good.

I referred to it as the butterfly tree and of course it features some of my favorite elements – sunflowers. At the time I painting this, I wrote a little story about this tree. It was funny that people thought my story and this tree to be real and true. Digital painting was so much fun. I didn’t suffer so much as I do with oil painting. Oil painting is much more challenging, which is why I will likely never leave it. I will likely never feel that I’ve achieved mastery. Strange how that works. So even though this is not a holiday image, wrong season, wrong everything, I think, I hope it is a feel good image – especially since my landscape failed.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa. Winifred

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