Happy New Year!

Welcome, my friends, to December’s Plein Air 365™!

I can’t believe that it has been another year full of wonderful places and amazing things to paint. December is a special month for me, not just for the holidays, but because it was this time in 2008 when the idea of doing this journey came to me while I was in Oklahoma visiting family. And for the past four years, it marks the beginning as well as the end, and this year’s end marks 1,500 alla prima plein air paintings!

December is also a month filled with challenging but very fun paintings to do. It is a month full of painting wonderful lights at night. Doing nocturnal paintings can be a challenge in itself, but trying to get the glow of the great colors of the Christmas lights while painting in either sub zero temps or in the high teens just makes for some interesting times I have had painting. This December was one of my favorites out of the four years to paint, due to some of the great scenes that I was able to find. One of them was a row of skies that I’ve been wanting to paint for years and just never did until now. Then there is my annual painting of a Nativity scene for Christmas Eve, and last year, it was a huge struggle, and I almost got into a fight with drunk guy. Not fun. This year, I found a charming little scene by my mom’s house, no one was around, it was 18 degrees, and a very light snow was coming down. It was a perfect Christmas Eve.

Then I have my annual New Year’s Eve painting on the frozen lake of Evergreen, Colorado, my home town. I was stressed for about a week before, concerning this painting. I only get a chance to paint fireworks twice a year, and since I like to end the year on a big note, I chose to do a 24″x36″ painting. So I kind of get a little freaked out just before the show. But this year was different, it was the best one I have had the good fortune in four years to paint. Not only was the firework show spectacular, but for the first time, I had a guest with me — my lovely and more-than-supportive love of my life, my wife, Lori. We saw a delightful show, I got to paint my annual 24″x36″ New Year’s Eve painting, had a chance to visit with a small group of onlookers while I painted, and to top it off, a large warm mug filled with some tasty hot cocoa was a delightful way to end the year.

As usual, I could keep on going and going with all the amazing things I had the chance to see and paint, but I’ll leave that for the book.

I wish all of you from the bottom of my heart a very merry and prosperous new year!

I hope you can sit back and enjoy December’s journey.

May love fill your heart and art fill your world.

Best regards,

Ted

P.S. I was very fortunate to be accepted into a special showing of the Golden Triangle of Denver Plein Air Event, held through the month of January 2013 at the Center for the Arts in Evergreen. If you are in the area, please stop by and check out the show. It has some of the best plein air painters of Colorado in it.