Here's the painting for today, taken off a mountain in western NY, near the small village of Belmont. Western NY looks much like the mountain areas of northern Georgia except the fall comes much earlier. As of late September this area has already had two frosts and the maples are already starting to turn. It won't be long before the maple syrup gathers begin to reap their sugary harvest and make their wares.

This painting was done above a small pond seen in the foreground. Off in the distance are two mountains I painted in different shades of blue. In retrospect I got a little too creative with this painting and needed to de-emphasize the background and concentrate on the foreground more. If you look at my previous painting, English Countryside you can see a better developed scene than this one. My next attempt will be one of the wonderful old barns that seem to be disappearing into dust in this part of NY once the part of the dairy capital of America. The Erie Canal was built in part to transport dairy products from the area but due to modern farming economics most farming is gone and the entire western part of NY is reverting to wind farms and forests. Even the people are leaving.