You are invited to attend the "Early Spring" opening reception with The Northwest Masters at La Conner Seaside Gallery SATURDAY, March 20th. Open the image to the left for details. Judy and I will be present at the gallery opening.

My painting (pictured here) was done en plein air at Aix en Provence, France, last September. Mt. Saint Victoire was painted over 30 times by Paul Cezanne, whose atelier (still intact and now a museum) is located just 1/2 mile up the road from where I worked on this piece.

An interesting side note: Picasso bought Cezanne's chateau located in a small village at the base of this famous mountain and lived his last years there (Cezanne died in 1906, Picasso in 1973 – he is buried at the chateau). Picasso was greatly influenced by Cezanne's works and owned several Cezanne master works. He freely "borrowed" compositions from those, which he used as on-going themes throughout his own stellar career. A grand exhibit of these 2 artists' works, especially pieces that Cezanne created and Picasso copied, was at Musee Garnet while we visited Aix.

I think all artists relate visually and metaphorically, to what has been laid-down by others. We respond, even to old themes, within a universal language of design, rhythms and imagery, pulled out of our own bags- of-tricks, while we work. Visiting Cezanne's atelier, the Musee Garnet exhibit of these 2 masters, plus a chance to paint at this rather sacred place in the art world, formed a day of connections for me as a painter, that I'll never forget.