The highlight of this week was the delightful snowstorm over the weekend – a bit of snow is a nice diversion yet I am glad that it is not long-term here in the Puget Sound region. Next week I am looking forward to:

The snow inspired the first and second sketches of the week. The first was a view out of our window. I did the dark background of silhouetted trees at sunrise first, after the paint was dry – mostly darkened Perylene Green – I used a Kuretake brush pen for the trees, then a white Uni Posca acrylic pen for the snow and highlights. The second sketch was an imagined mountain snow scene. Every other sketch this week was with my new Fude Fountain pen, they really are my first choice for most sketches.

If art is at all an expression of ourselves, then the mountains must be heavy on my mind these days as the next two sketches are of more mountain scenes, the first is an alpine lake, the second is the kind of trail I used to hike so frequently in the Mt. Hood Wilderness area. These days I fear my knees would protest, but my heart is still in the mountains.

Then of course my thoughts do not stay away from Europe for long. At this stage of life we had plans to visit so many places, starting of course with France, then on to Portugal, back to Spain and Scotland, then on to who know where. We have not given up hope, in the meantime we dream and plan.