'Tis the Season…What?

It's the Great Pumpkin, CB!  
Is it really December 20!?!  Where did this year go!  It seems like yesterday that I was committing to keep a daily 2015 journal…that lasted about five months!  I still have half a notebook and a pen full of ink.  Maybe I'll fill that up next year.  But my year WAS full…and my cup runneth waaaay over.  Like the star of this painting, I am bursting at the seams with Joy when I paint.  Like the old tired barns in the distance, I feel a bit rusty when I play too much golf!  I have had three wonderful shows this year; taught two wonderful workshops; and have one happy family at the Art Cellar Gallery in Banner Elk, NC.  I feel the love, folks!  So, the time has, as Dizzy Dean used to say, "slud" by.
But then artists, at least this one, don't keep track of time very well.  This painting was first seen in October…the barns were shot at a different location in September…and the painting was done in the studio in Florida in November…maybe it is just early for next year's fall paintings at the gallery…

Now this one, Summer Mountain Morning, is the first oil painting I have done in a year!  I started it this summer…and finished it yesterday…I know, where's the snow, pine trees…that mountain Christmas?  Well, see, artists are oblivious to the time of year…in the studio.  This one was started ​en plein air, but finished in the studio…in Naples, FL.  Imagination?  Not really…we just get lost.  Like listening to Christmas carols this time of year…Joy to the World, y'all, and Merry Christmas…hope to see you in 2016!
P.S.  I am starting an oil snow scene next week!  Supposed to be in the 80s here!