Abe's Run

© 1997, Titi Ferguson

If you walk or cross-country ski on the Abe Run Trail in Canaan Valley, you may still see this dead tree.  Every time I skied past this place, the colors and composition said, “Paint me!”

Autumn on the Blackwater

© 1999, Titi Ferguson

I created this from a combination of two reference photos taken in different seasons. The Fall Mountains are from another location, but this looked right. I felt that the colors of Fall and the promise of Winter and skiing made the painting more exciting.

Blackwater Falls

© 1997, Titi Ferguson

Everyone who lives in this area is required by some obscure local law to either photograph or paint Blackwater Falls at least once. I’ve painted it with a companion piece, First Light on the Blackwater, A Winter Scene, using the opposite side of the canyon as my vantage point.

Canaan Dawn

© 1999, Titi Ferguson

Early morning in late summer is made up of mist, long shadows and a need to keep moving around the next foggy, mysterious bend.  For those of you interested in techniques, this was painted with only two pigments.

Cranberry Glades

© 1999, Titi Ferguson

This is of a huge and locally well-known cranberry area in West Virginia near Pearl S. Buck’s birthplace. If you’ve ever eaten domestic cranberry sauce, your experience has been limited to an insipid paste. Come by some time and we’ll give you a sample of the real thing!

Dawn Patrol

© 1999, Titi Ferguson

I have painted a series of Great Blue Heron subjects. In addition to this are Morning Nosh, Night Watch and Storm Watch. This is what they look like as they go about their daily job of living. I am grateful to friends and members of our DNR and National Wildlife Refuge, in which we live, for help in editing my preliminary sketches for accuracy.

First Light at Blackwater

© 2000, Titi Ferguson

This is a companion piece that goes with a more conventional Blackwater Falls I painted in 1997. Blackwater Falls really does look like this when it freezes (and it does) and, no, I did not paint this plein air and watch the paints freeze, too.

Flag Tree at Bear Rocks

© 2004, Titi Ferguson

One of the unique sights in this area is the conifers that have grown one-sided.  They grow in a 4000 foot plateau pushed to one side by a west wind that never ceases.  The environment is harsh.  These trees are hundreds of years old.

Good Morning Canaan!

© 2012, Titi Ferguson

Robin Williams may have said it first, but our own

Ludovic Moore said it recently from the top of Cabin Mountain when he took the photo he allowed me to use for reference for this painting.  My thanks to both for the inspiration for this piece.

Ask Vic to show you his gorgeous photograph!

Leaves Early Summer

© 2000, Titi Ferguson

Description Coming soon

Leaves Fall

© 2000, Titi Ferguson

Description Coming soon

Leaves Late Summer

© 2000, Titi Ferguson

Description Coming soon

Leaves Spring

© 2000, Titi Ferguson

Description Coming soon

Me !

© 2010, Titi Ferguson

What’s Over There? and Me! Seemed to just grow like Topsy.  I wanted a deer subject and I had been playing with the idea of a two-pigment scene.  These two satisfied my curiosity and created an interesting grouping, one horizontal and one vertical.

Mist on the Sods

© 1997, Titi Ferguson

This is an early Dolly Sods painting. Fog is endemic in the area adding eeriness to an already strange landscape. While I don’t want to paint photographically, I have closely approximated the feeling the this place.

Moonlight Sonata

© 2010, Titi Ferguson

I started this in the summer of 2008. I didn’t like my drawing of the deer, so I put this aside and worked on improving my drawing. The painting was forgotten. Then, someone criticized my art for lack of animation. So, properly chastised, I produced this. Also, see Fly Fishing & Winter Hike.

Morning Nosh

© 1999, Titi Ferguson

This is one of a series of four Great Blue Heron paintings.

The other three are Night Watch, Storm Watch and Dawn Patrol. This is what they look like when they don’t know you are watching.  I am grateful to friends and members of our DNR and National Wildlife Refuge, in which we live, for help in editing my preliminary sketches.

Oxbow in the Blackwater

© 2003, Titi Ferguson

The Blackwater River meanders through our Canaan Valley for 15 miles until it crashes over an impressive falls. (Please look at my Blackwater Falls and First Light.) over the ten thousand years since the ice sheet left us, the river has altered its route many times leaving oxbows such as this.

Red Skies in the Morning

© 2006, Titi Ferguson

This, and another painting, Dawn’s Early Light, were painted from reference photos taken from the same location half an hour apart.  Once again, I’m at Bear Rocks in Dolly Sods looking East over the rim of a cliff with a thousand feet of nothing to a plateau below.

Snow Squall on the Sods

© 2011, Titi Ferguson

Description coming soon

Solitude

© 2007, Titi Ferguson

I came upon this guy while hiking and photographed him before he knew I was present.  I love our wild animals - even the bears most of the time.

Spruce Lake

© 1997, Titi Ferguson

Although we have a Spruce Lake in Canaan Valley where I live, and Spruce Lake at Spruce Knob about fifteen miles away on West Virginia’s highest mountain, this isn’t either one, exactly. It’s my idea of what a Spruce Lake should look like even though my followers assure my they know exactly where I sat when I painted this.

Storm Watch

© 1999, Titi Ferguson

This is one of a series of Great Blue Heron paintings. Dawn Patrol, `morning Nosh and Night Watch complete the group. Dawn Patrol will tell you more about how they came about.

The Color of Fall, II

© 2006, Titi Ferguson

Another Dolly Sods painting.

The time is October. The blueberry bushes catch fire, looking more like a cranberry glade. I painted this exact same scene fog shrouded, one of my favored conditions. It’s titled Dolly Sods-The Color of Fall.

The Color of Winter

© 2011, Titi Ferguson

You can see a view like this at the top of Backbone Mountain on Route 219 in Tucker County with every snowfall

(which is frequent, four or five months a year).

The Sentinels

© 2005, Titi Ferguson

These trees are in the Dolly Sods-Bear Rocks area. One died long ago but doesn’t know it’s supposed to fall over; the other won’t be far behind. I think it’s a miracle that life can even begin in this rock.

What’s Over There?

© 2010, Titi Ferguson

What’s Over There? and Me! Seemed to just grow like Topsy.  I wanted a deer subject and I had been playing with the idea of a two-pigment scene.  These two satisfied my curiosity and created an interesting grouping, one horizontal and one vertical.

Winter on the Sods

© 1997, Titi Ferguson

This is the first of mu Dolly Sods series. There are eleven more now. Viewers have insisted that I painted this plein air, but I assure you that without a blowtorch to keep the paints thawed, it’s strictly an inside job.