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"Shrouded" 10" x 12" Oil on linen

The morning fog lays heavy over the landscape. Images that are so brilliantly displayed in full sunlight in the afternoon are shrouded over by the mystic layer of ghostly haze. The Sonoma coast is dotted by farms with their weathered wood and rusty roofs looking like old time elders to the younger and newer outcropped buildings. The morning fog brings a mystery to the landscape and all it envelopes. The nearby hills just yards away can barely be seen through the mist. The eucalyptus trees fade in and out of focus. Is there life in those old buildings? What have they seen? What do they know? The stories they must hold, standing there for so long sheltering the stock they have protected over the years along with stored up feed of hay and corn, farm tools, tractors, and other implements of farm life.

Color can be so overly hyped. Everyone loves color. Who doesn't love color? What artist does not love color? Michelangelo loved color. I love color just as much as any artist or person for that matter. But grays......ooooooh. Grays can reveal so much and they can bring out the color. It doesn't take much. But the colors of gray that exist in the shrouded fog establish the mysterious and the quiet mood that begs reflection within our hearts and of ourselves. Do we dare explore the mystery that exists within those barns, shelters, and sheds? Do we dare explore the interior of ourselves? The ocean, being so near, brings a chill. Our nostrils are filled with the cleansing moisture from the low lying clouds which start to fade, as the warmth of the sun slowly overpowers them and soon reveals the joyous light that has been anticipated the morning long.