First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have much to be personally grateful for, even in this time of world confusion and conflict. May we remember we are each part of a much greater whole, and help each other to find comfort and compassion when ever we can.

But now, about the studio; I have moved in and started working! The space is terrific, and the lighting is absolutely lovely. The above picture is me working in the morning sun. I have a great studio mate in the room next door. Jim make huge sculptures and I think owns every tool know to mankind! He and I share musical tastes, and so the studios are usually rocking away. Here are a couple of more photos of the space.

Before I get rocking on the pieces inspired by the Smokey Mountain Park, I decided to do a few "warm-ups" from some other Charlottesville photos. After Thanksgiving is over and "normal" returns, I will get down to business on the park pieces in anticipation of my February show at the McGuffey. Here are a couple shots of the work in progress:

If you want to see this piece FINISHED!! Click HERE!

Yesterday we drove across Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia to get back home to C'ville! I must say we live in a beautiful country. The fields, the trees, the hills, and even the flatlands are all amazing!

Our trip was great, good times and good people. Our butts are sore from sitting, and our own bed felt pretty darn good last night!

Today will start organizing my new studio space at the McGuffey Art Center. So very excited to get it up and going. Feels like I have been off the machine for weeks.... oh ya... I HAVE!!!

So, while I am organizing, you can see more of my "Intentional Blur Photo Paintings"

We are on the road for about 2000 miles! As I watch the world go by I see the textures, that happen with my stitching, in the blur of the speed of the countryside going by. Last year, on a similar road trip I first tried this, you can see those on Facebook here. This year, after a lot of experimentation and testing, I finally have found a few combinations of f-stops, ISO, and shutter speeds,  that replicated the look I was looking for.  These blurs are pretty much as taken, with a little color editing, and I love the painterly look achieved, and am now ready for the ride home to try some more!