field sketches ~ winter 2022-23

This is Gracie my Llewllin Setter, taking a break in an unharvested soybean field amid  Autumn's splendor. This image was taken two years ago and now at 15.5 years she can no longer make the trip into the woods. Short walks around the yard is all she can muster these days. A happier dog would be hard to find though, she sleeps hard and long now but knows just when to wake up for lunch and dinner. Life is good! 

This  was her 'swimming pool' in a near by stream. She would race ahead at a certain point in our walk and plunge into the cooling waters. Definitely the highlight of the walk!

And this was Gracie in late 2010 with my English Setter Ruger. They were best friends.

And currently with my two year old Llewellin Setter, Foxxer who is painfully jealous of Gracie. On good days they tolerate one another at best.  

February 2021, Foxxer at 4 months engaging Gracie in a little snow play and she ain't having any of it!

I have a tendency to work on paintings that have a connection with an upcoming season. "Magnolia" had been on the proverbial burner for a while but I didn't know what kind of backdrop I wanted for it. This past winter I was looking through some seasonal reference photos and stumbled into a number of late winter, early spring water images and everything clicked!