April 2025

In Capitol Reef N.P. there are the remains of an old farming community called Fruita. On our 2023 trip, we stopped there to visit a small gift shop. Nearby there was this old wagon and a barn with several horses. It was a picturesque spot and I took several photos. I used one of them for this painting.

Maureen saw that I was looking through old photos for a painting idea, and she pointed to a small painting on our living room wall and said "Why don't you paint that?" It was just about the only art that we had ever purchased. In 2000, we spent three days in Paris. On our last morning we were just about to leave on the train to London and we walked by this cafe near our hotel. It was "Les Deux Magots", a place that was a famous hangout for artists and intellectuals in the 30's. A street painter was working out in front, and on an impulse, we bought one of his paintings. The oil paint was still a bit wet and we had to be careful carrying it on the train with all of our luggage. I looked through our photos and found a couple from that time and put together this painting. It's a bit messy close up, but at a distance it brings back good memories.

On our 2000 trip, we spent a couple of days in Brecon, Wales. We went there to see the Brecon Beacons, a mountain range which is a National Park. We spent a day hiking up to the highest peaks (2907 ft.), and saw some great views. We also looked around the town a bit and came across this scene with a boat on one of the canals. We wanted to see some of Wales because we thought it would be different from England, but found it to be much the same except for the strange spellings of place names.