For years I would create a new calendar comprised from my Circle of Life collection of bright, colorful landscape paintings.  But, I've been slacking, I will admit it, and haven't created one for a few years, but I'm back at it and just released the 2021 calendar with all new designs!

The great thing about these calendars is you don't have to dispose of them once the year is over, you can continue to display the calendar as art, or even remove the art pages from the calendar and frame them to enjoy for years to come.  Knowing this I'm going to make a point of creating each new calendar with never before used art so you have the option to use the art in different ways for displaying in your home or office.

For those who may not know, my Circle of Life collection is one of my post popular series I have ever created.  The paintings are always super colorful, using rich, vibrant shades of every color imaginable, and always feature the black silhouette of a tree, surrounded by floating circles in various sizes and colors.  My inspiration for this colorful and whimsical series comes from living life to it’s fullest and repeatedly seeing how the good and bad in life always come full circle. Gustav Klimt is another inspiring force behind my use of circles and other shapes in my paintings. His ability to take unrelated shapes and interpose them to create a painting of beauty and mastery is enthralling and inspirational.

“The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.”  ~  Empedocles

I have a fabulous, long time collector...Larry, who I've also become friends with over the years.  He is an amazing stained glass artist, and I'm beyond honored to have one of his pieces of art recreated from one of my paintings that he purchased.  He consistently collects new art and recently purchased the painting "Land of Wonder" when I was having my moving sale.  Well, he had also seen my coloring pages, and thought how cool it would be to have a mural sized coloring page with hints of color handpainted by me...I was down for the challenge!  I actually started my professional artist career painting murals in the Orlando, FL  area, so I was looking forward to revisiting mural size painting.

​Larry ended up choosing the coloring page (above) that the original painting "Land of Wonder", was created from, and I also gave him the original drawing itself, so he has a triad of original coordinating art that no one else has.

Larry and I worked together with one of my licensing partners Murals Your Way - you can purchase some of my art as murals from them, link here - to create the perfect black and white reproduction of the original drawing on three canvas panels totaling 9'x8'.  The challenge for me was that I didn't have any table space this large, so I had to lay it out on my studio floor, which required moving everything out of the way and practicing my contortionist skills, haha!!  

And the final results as shown in Larry's home!  This was such a fun and different project for me; I love when my collectors come up with new ideas to challenge me as an artist, and this was one!  Larry is the only person on the planet who has a mural like this.  So proud to continue to have him as one of my best collector's and inspiring me to always step outside of my comfort zone with my art, thank you Larry!

Larry's description of the art in his home ~ "This canvas art piece draws the viewer into an eclectic mix of whimsy among a wood & glass framework at this, The MoonShadow House. Gotta Love It !!!!"

Every now and then someone will contact me about a painting they saw online and ask if it is still available, and more often than not the painting has already sold.  This is true of one of my most popular paintings from 2008, "Aqua Burn", it sold in 2008, but prints are available of it.  A recent, new collector, reached out to see if it was possible to similarly recreate it.  I was more than happy to do so, since I haven't painted anything from my Circle of Life painting in months!  I always enjoy revisiting certain styles and colors, and this is one of my favorite color combinations for any style or painting.  

The original "Aqua Burn" was created on an 18"x24" canvas, but the new collector wanted a much larger size and we settled on a 60"x48" Genie Canvas.  I always love to paint oversized, it's challenging and the effect of larger paintings is so impressive once hung.  Here is a compilation video of the painting in process and finished hanging up in it's new home.

Below are pics of the painting hanging in it's new home in the mountains of Montana ( I lived in Montana for the first 5 years of my life :).  The beautiful mountain scene is what the painting sees looking out the window, how magnificent and beautiful is that?!

It's amazing how well such a colorful, contemporary painting can fit in with the wild rustic beauty of the collectors home they describe as "Mountain refined with log accents".  It's as though they were made for each other!  It is always such a thrill to see my art hanging in it's new home, it's as if a part of me gets to travel around the world through my art.  

Life is a never ending cycle of change and growth, and I'm currently going through a lot of that right now! But, it's all for the good of my health and soul and working on living My Best Life.  

I have a new, beautiful studio in Miami Beach to enjoy for a little while, who knows when I might move next :)  And I finally broke it in with a big, beautiful commissioned recreation of my painting "Aqua Burn".  Nothing better than putting paint on canvas...myself and the floor, it means the studio is officially broken in!  The painting was created on a fabulous 60"x48" stretched Genie Canvas, the ONLY canvas I paint my oversized paintings on.

Here are some work in progress pics and a quick little time lapse video of the painting process, after almost 3 months of minimal creativity it feels so good to get back to doing what I love!