Everyday our lives are filled with distractions that take us off our intended paths. We are diverted from calling old friends or taking that trip we promised years ago.

As an artist I can pack up my gear, weather permitting, and head outside to paint. It's a great privilege to be able to create paintings collectors want to live with while enjoying the great outdoors.

In those two hours of painting, your subject slowly reveals itself to you with the changing light, wildlife, and human activity.

Had  I just took a quick snapshot and moved on I would have missed the story. Sometimes the subjects story is quickly evident while other times it may reveal itself more slowly.

People  come by to take a look at the process of your painting. Some of them can be a little sketchy, but I'll talk to most anyone as long as they are not invading my space and stand at a respectable distance.

One day, while painting along Route 98 in East Point Fl. a disheveled guy came up and started to chat. I was a little on guard but as he spoke I relaxed and started to have empathy for him. He told me he built the Oyster Boat I was painting and that he also built homes and fished for a living. As the painting was starting to come together he could not take his eyes off my process, while telling me about taking his son up to Tallahassee for chemo treatments, with no insurance. He worked three jobs to pay for the treatment and today his son is fine. The boat I painted during that two hours had a story worth telling along with its creator.

It was an ok painting but the experience was worth setting up my easel.

We learn so much about  our subjects when we take the time and patience to allow it to reveal itself.

Artists for centuries have ventured outside for a better understanding of the world we live in, but everyone can take the time to stop and smell the roses.