"Lilac Road," from start to finish

"Lilac Road" 16" x 20" oil on gallery-wrapped canvas

Finished product.

Almost done. Blocking in colors and values.

Starting out with the cad red background and putting in the values.

This painting painted itself. The hardest part about the piece was getting my butt to the easel and DOING IT.

I woke up Easter morning with no plans on my plate and the sun shining. Since I don't live near my family, there were no Easter obligations and the day lay before me unencumbered with social appointments. On this past Friday, our lovely town of Lead, SD got a good 8" of snow. Yes, snow. But, the last 2 days have been back in the 50s with the snow melting quickly.

So...here is my newest painting. It's the final in the series of the 3 spring lilac pictures I took when I first moved to South Dakota. This is a small gravel backroad in the Johnson Siding neighborhood of western Rapid City.

I LOVE lilacs. The smell brings me back to my childhood and last year the lilac season was a full month behind northern IL...so I got TWO lilac seasons.

Here is "Lilac Road" in its progressive stages. Enjoy.