Lindsey and I first visited The Netherlands in 2017 to spend time with our son Neil, a professor at Tilburg University. Highlights of the trip included his girlfriend Maaike's hometown of Heeze. We also toured the countryside, saw the tulips in bloom at the Keukenhof flower fields, and went to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

Once home, I painted several canvases—some quick and loose and others more precise. Many of these pictures were on display at the URGE Gallery in Escondido, CA in December of that year.

After another visit in 2022, I painted pictures of scenes behind Neil and Maaike's house, an area with ponds, forests, and fields. The large sunset painting was from one of his photos during an evening walk.

In 2023, the now married couple introduced us to our first grandson. I returned home and painted more scenery, as well as Van Gogh experiments ("Revisiting Van Gogh" blog article) and an homage to his "Almond Blossoms," which he had painted for his nephew's birth. I wrote about these in