Minnesota's April Fools Prank

After a weekend of 40's and near 50's, we woke up on Monday to a blizzard outside our window. A small "weather event" turned into a complete white out with snow totals around here in the 4-6 inch range. Don't get me wrong...it was spectacular. I turned on the fire, sat down with all my shades open and painted all day. Now the reason I call this an April Fools prank is, we woke up April 1st to this...

This picture was taken at 8:00 am Tuesday Morning...

This picture was taken 8:00 am Friday morning...

Now that is what I call a convenient snowstorm!!!

I enjoyed this snowburst, but I am ready for spring now!

Last but not least...

The final painting in the series of four. Whew!

Gathering reference

One of my favorite parts of this job is getting outside and getting new reference for paintings. To be very honest with you, I have enough great reference to keep me in paintings for years...but getting out into nature spurs on the creative engine and gets me revved up to paint.

One of my new favorite places to photograph is Minnesota Wildlife Connection. The animals there are all well trained, well taken care of, and most of all well loved. It shows in the way they respond to Lee. His facility gives me the opportunity catch animals that would be almost impossible photograph in the wild. Give his website a look, http://www.minnesotawildlifeconnection.com/ .
It was a perfect day. We got about 4-5 inches of snow that fell overnight and covered all the 'dirty snow' and made every things so fresh. When we got to shooting the sun came out and slowly melted the snow, giving everything a different look throughout the day. We could not have asked for better weather.
A dream come true...with all the wildlife I have worked with, I never had the opportunity to hold a fox. And yes, that is me hiding behind her.

#3 of 4- Springtime Quartet

Only one more to finish...

Thank you LCPS

I did a demo at the Lake Country Pastel Society in New Brighton on Tuesday night and had a great time. This is such a wonderful organization with such great members. Please take a minute and check out their wonderful website, www.lakecountrypastelsociety.org. I wanted to say thank you for your warm reception and laughing at my bad jokes!

Click on the Paintings in Progress button to your right, and you can see my painting demos I talked about in class.

See you at the next meeting!!!