No. 261 was painted for my sister and her family as a Christmas present. It’s a much more developed version of No. 238 from last year. I had wanted to give them one of the ones I painted on the trip but they were more like studies. And I wanted the one they got to be really good.

Painting this was a challenge and I very nearly gave up on it twice. I get wound up when painting anything larger than 8? x 10? and this one was no different. But, the last set I worked through taught me so many lessons and I was able to use those to find the answer.