15 minutes with Claudia

Of the 15 minutes Claudia "sat" for me, she agreed to look up from her book for about 2. She said I look at her all the time and should know what she looks like.

Open Door at the Store?

I've been puzzling over how to deal with the effect of looking into the store and seeing the reflection at the same time. Since it's snowing out, I took some studio time to try out opening the door and putting figures into the mix. I also moved over the glowing Apple, although I still think it looks too far right. I might have to move the store wall to the right to solve the problem.

Emphasis on the tree trunk -- and it's done

The Real California Sky

Two California natives helped me look at the painting again and I've made a few changes. The biggest one is that the sky is no longer defined by my East-coast sensibility, which says if there's mountains, there's clouds. What I was reminded about California is that the blue of the sky is potent -- and that what I was interpreting in the photos through East-coast eyes was really blue sky.