New fuel for my creative fire - Linda Evans Davis

I have been looking at pastel landscapes, notably those by Liz Hayward-Sullivan, Kitty Wallis and Elaine Lierly Jones, and I'm dying to do some myself. On Monday I went to the winery and the nature preserve in Liberty and to the arboretum in Overland Park to take photos to use as reference for upcoming paintings. At the time I was thinking that I didn't get much because the sun was too high and there were no clouds in the sky, but I took a lot of photos anyway.

Boy, am I glad I did. I just uploaded the photos to my computer and I'm so excited! I can see the paintings in my head as the images pop into Adobe Lightroom. I'm mentally picking out the colors to use for the shadows and highlights. It's exhilarating! The funny thing is that the images that I thought were going to be great reference aren't the ones I'm most excited about. That'll teach me. My dad always told me that the key to taking good photos is to take a LOT of photos.

I must make reference photography a more regular practice. I need to get a case that will protect my camera outside of my camera bag so that I can carry it with me constantly and grab inspiration when it happens. While driving to Lawrence for an appointment yesterday at 5:00 p.m. I longed for my camera to capture the long shadows, deep greens of the fir trees and the brilliant pops of yellow green from the grass and other leaves. It's amazing how when you start painting that you start seeing inspiration everywhere around you.

What have you found inspiring lately?