Yesterday (Valentine's Day), Jessica and I took some time during the afternoon to paint together. I wasn't sure what to paint, but was inspired by the book cover art for The Hobbit, which I'd just begun to re-read after many years.

I wanted to paint something like that, a scene containing hints of possible adventure in the future. I started out with the intent of doing a more abstract piece, but then got sucked into painting the gradations of the fading dusk light in the sky and on the plain.

The "misty" mountains were an afterthought. Originally there was a small shadowed house on the horizon, which I didn't like. The house was still wet when I tried to paint over it, so I got these ugly smudges that I didn't know what to do with. After some teasing, they eventually turned into the mountains that I think brought the essence of the piece into being!

For the first time, I was really excited about a painting I had done immediately after it was finished. Partly because I felt I wasn't trying to manufacture anything specifically with it, but was isntead uncovering an emotion that had lain dormant in the canvas all along. My delight in this painting is the delight of the explorer, rather than the delight of the creator.