Back After a Long Absence...

It's been a while since I've been on my blog. At the beginning of September my 92-year-old mother was diagnosed with a aortic heart valve problem. After a couple of visits to cardio-surgeons, she was offered the chance for an aortic valve replacement, superseding her own valve with one made of titanium mesh and pig valve. She was schedule for surgery at the end of September. In addition to the valve replacement, she had a defibrillator implant. Consequently, I took care of her for the next few weeks after the surgery. I didn't have much access to wireless internet service at her retirement community, so I wasn't able to get on line that ofter. 

​Since my return to Denver, I have been recuperating for a moderately debilitating, but longer lasting cold. This also impacted my work on this site.

However, I was able to work on several pieces of art, one brand new piece and two revisions of previous pieces.

​The new piece, "Sand Dune Arch, Morning" is a piece I had been wanting to work on for a while. Given the high contrast between illumination of the secluded arch and the sky, I had to work on making the sky something other than washed out in order to get the detail I wanted on the rock formations.

The other two pieces have been favorites of mine for a the past three years, though I wasn't completely satisfied with what I had done. With "Landscape Arch, Afternoon". I again worked on the sky to give it some character by adding clouds. I also worked to get better separation between visual planes. "West Mitten, Early Evening" need a bit more attention to detail between brighter and darker portions of the image. 

In addition, I have just purchased my new iMac with a 4K resolution and a wireless mouse. The wireless mouse is taking a bit of time to get used to, even after making a few adjustments. However, I am working on three new pieces which I hope to post to this site soon.

I am also in the planning stages for a trip to Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks next spring.