A View of Dusk
"Dusk in the Grove" 9 x 12 Chalk Pastel on Paper Click here to purchase original It's hard to tell which is a more inspiring time to paint: dusk or dawn. Not being much of a morning person, most of my paintings take their inspiration from dusk. In "Dusk in the Grove," I used a picture taken on my phone as reference (had to set the screen time out to 10 minutes so I wouldn't go crazy). We were visiting friends in Fallbrook, and my daughter had grown squirmy. This led to an outdoor walk, and we followed a sulky black cat through the trees. I was actually trying to get a photo of the cat for my daughter, but it had managed to disappear. I like pictures of shaggy, unmanicured grove trees better than the well-maintained kind, so I snapped one for future reference. This painting shows what I love most about living in Fallbrook: each piece of property has its own agricultural charms, and as the light fades to the west, there is a sense of peace and anticipa...