This painting is from imagination. I often search far and wide for certain themes and subjects, but sometimes I just want to paint a subject I can't locate, or that is not optimal in real life. At those times I will pull from memory, from imagination, and from different places to create a new scene. This is one such painting. The inspiration is from a real place, but only the overall composition of a high spot with trees on the left, some water in the middle and foreground, and a nice sky. So I created this and used many reference photos to inspire different parts of the painting. I enjoy the freedom of working from imagination. The challenge is not having an actual place to stand and examine colors, texture and light. These imagined pieces often have a more romanticized interpretation of nature and feel more dreamy. They allow for experimentation and in this painting I particularly enjoyed painting the sky and clouds in the right of the painting.