I cherish the little art studio at the Garden Home Retreat. It is one of the few places where I can truly turn off the outside world and get away.
I savor winter weekends spent in the studio working on drawings and paintings. When it is bitterly cold outside and the garden is wearing its winter clothes, the studio is like a warm cocoon with a fire in the fire place and bright, natural light flooding in from the sliding doors and windows.
Even on the bleakest February day, the garden still offers plenty of inspiration for my paintings. From my cozy perch I can look out of the windows toward the northwest and down the Arkansas River Valley to get a generous view of the river. The river looks so vast one might think it is a lake. The sight brings to mind the Hudson River Valley painters of the 19th Century.
Several years ago I went to Alana on the Hudson River, the home of Fredrick Church the great American landscape painter. I was there in autumn when the fall foliage was at its peak. What a thrilling place if you love history, painting and landscape. While my river valley may not be quite as sublime, I have to say that it runs a very close second.
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