Stormy Weather and A Red Wood

Here are two paintings I've recently completed.

The first is a 56X56 canvas. For the time being, I'm calling it Stormy Weather. I've had this large canvas mounted and ready to paint for about 2 1/2 months. I've been waiting for the canvas to tell me what to put on it or for formulation in my mind of what I knew should go on the canvas. I have set aside several ideas very different than this. Where this idea came from is an image (shape) that is recurring in the paintings of John Karl Claes. Claes has used a big sweeping turn of a canal in some of his landscapes. How the image from his paintings ended up looking like this in my painting is a mystery to me, but I like the painting.

WT - Stormy Weather - 2009
56 X 56
Oil on Canvas

The second painting posted here might be finished or it may not. I've continued to work on it but I have probably completed what I've wanted to do. I've titled it "A Red Wood" but it is a departure from my previous "wood" paintings. I never know, sometimes a painting steers me in ways I did not expect to go. This painting is a good example of that dynamic. Again, no photo will properly represent a painting - it must be seen in person.

A Red Wood - 2009
36 X 24
Oil on Canvas