Needing some Painting Inspiration

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Actually, I live in a wonderland of nature's inspiration.  For an artist you don't have to go far here to find something interesting to paint.

I love to start off with something grand to paint, and then condense it.  Take away everything but the most important shapes and then I let my imagination go - and the finished work will most likely look nothing like the source.  But the start was still my inspiration.

Finally, it is Spring!  I am so glad.  I've been mostly in the past couple of days, painting, of course and today I was just feeling like I had to stop everything and get outside.  

Carolina blue sky, sunshine, perfect temperature and everything around me is turning green - a favorite color.  I walked around my yard, and down my street but I just had to see more.  Lucky me - I live about 2 miles from the Biltmore Estate.  The Biltmore knows how to do Spring!

So, off I went.  What a wonderful place - and I drove straight to the gardens and the greenhouses.  What inspiration!  I was breathing in the perfect, clean air, my eyeballs were popping out with the color in the gardens - tulips - many, many tulips. 

I don't necessarily want to paint tulips but I would love to paint the feeling of being surrounded by all of that Spring Green, and the reds, yellows, purples of the tulips.

Then into the Greenhouse where every kind of exotic and wonderful plant - all shapes and sizes, all healthy and growing and giving off their beauty.  Wow!  Just how do I paint the essence of that?  Splatters and drips and marks of juicy color is what I am thinking.

I sat in the garden and people watched.  It was a great afternoon.  And on the way out I walked down to a small pond and sat in a little deck right on the edge of it.  Plenty of painting inspiration today!  I'll let you know what I come up with.