This is the outside view of Chapel of the Holy Cross (www.chapeloftheholycross.com) in Sedona, Arizona. Painting red rocks is a challenge. If you look back at my Broadmoor Hotel paintings, you can see how I used a different style for the rocks this time. I am employing the "wash" technique in a patchwork to create the look of the red rocks.

We visited Chapel of the Holy Cross (www.chapeloftheholycross.com) in Sedona, Arizona last year. I wanted to paint it as soon as I saw it. This is a view of the chapel interior, and my nextpost will feature the exterior.

This is one of my favorite paintings I have done recently. I am really pleased with the way the red rose vine came out, and with the vivid colors over all.

This is the tasting room at Husch www.huschvineyards.com in Anderson Valley. At Husch, the property is wonderful, the wines are tasty, and the staff is so nice... so when I look back at this painting, I have that feel-good "I was here" experience I strive to give people who look at my art.

This little shed is beside the Squire Tarbox Inn http://www.squiretarboxinn.com/, a lovely B&B in Westport Island, Maine.

This is the front of the Pellegrini Family Winery http://www.pellegrinisonoma.com/ in Sonoma. The heavy shadow cast on the building by its own roof line reminded me of the painting I did of the facade of the Broadmoor Hotel (read down in the blog to the 2005 entries).

This is the Squire Tarbox Inn www.squiretarboxinn.com/ in Westport Island, Maine. I love this property since my family has a home just down the road.

This painting is a little different from some of my others as I have not painted a scene seen through a window before. There are two inspirations for this work.

I snapped a source photo for this piece in downtown San Francisco a few years ago. It was before we moved to California, so I was taken by all the designer shops around Union Square. I like the source photo, but it has some imperfections which I tried to paint away in this piece.

The second inspiration is Ward Schumaker www.warddraw.com. Ward illustrated the Spring/Summer 2008 Hermès catalog and there was an article about it in the San Francisco Chronicle. I devoured the article, and dreamed that Hermès or some other fabulous designer label would call me one day to illustrate their collection.

When I thought about Ward Schumaker's work, and used my Hermès storefront source photos, this painting came to life.