It was a cold morning with ominous clouds barely hiding the sun when I looked out my studio window at the western mountain range. It was Easter morning. As I looked out the window, the painting started to form in my mind, not completely, but enticing enough to place a canvas on my easel to challenge me to begin. In those days I was struggling with skies. How much blue, how many clouds, what shapes should clouds be and how much density should be displayed. Land masses could be raw or smooth, or even both in different proportions, but at what level? The more I thought the more complex this scene became in my mind. I rejected it all and decided to let the painting talk to me. With no plan in mind I did a large brush swipe across the canvas. That first stroke started the conversation. It directed the placement of the next stroke, and then the next. Shapes started to appear and then the decisions about where form enhancements needed to be placed, where the mountains had to be placed, where the main interest or focal point of the painting should be. It became exciting to watch in slow motion how this tranquil painting was emerging. The conversation was on. Some people call it "being in the zone". Maybe. For me, listening to Beethoven, and watching the painting appear before me while I am totally involved with making decision and capturing the happenstance with how sometimes the paint or a movement catches a form that should be enhanced is the conversation. Nothing else in the world exists. This painting ended up as an abstract ethereal scene.