For some reason, we always feel like we have to pick a favorite -- a favorite food, a favorite color, a favorite season. What once used to be called a parlor game is now a Facebook quiz.

But why play favorites? Especially when it comes to nature and the seasons, it is difficult to pick out the "best," so we're just as free to marvel and wonder at each of the seasons, all of the days, and the color and beauty they showcase.

After Harvest and Day Closing are two such images, peaceful country landscapes celebrating the quiet and peacefulness of rural life, the changing of the seasons, the color and joy of earth's fields and meadows and hills and sky.

Life in the Country

By its very nature, life in the country is quieter with fewer people and noises than life in the city. Most of us, who are ordinary, regular people with jobs that pay enough to meet the bills but not fund regular vacations to South Sea island resorts, tend to have one home -- whether it's in the rural enclaves of the country, in the midst of a small town, on the coast, or in the middle of the city.

Hopefully, we like where we live, because that's where we spend our time. But even when we like where we live, it's enjoyable to think about and view other places, and many people who do not live in rural areas enjoy being around the countryside through the fine art on their walls.

And from our experience, those who live in the rural areas, enjoy both the art on their walls and the view out their window!

Part of a collection of Steve's small works, After Harvest and Day Closing are attractively priced, and perfect for a gift to oneself or one's friend. Shipping throughout the U.S. is free.

Sometimes, you just have to be alone.

And while it sounds like a line from a movie, or a movie star, the need for solitude, for quiet, for reflection is a universal one. 

("I want to be alone," is often attributed to the screen legend Greta Garbo, who apparently averred that she never said that -- "I only said, 'I want to be let alone.' There is all the difference.")

Catching the Breeze, the impressionist painting of a woman walking along the beach at sunset, captures this sense of time to oneself: it is a beautiful time, a meditative time, a barefoot walk through the surf in the midst of sunset's golden, coral, glowing colors. When one looks at this scene and compares it to, say, the grey, carpeted walls of an office cubicle, then being alone doesn't seem like what we're repeatedly told solitude is: a misanthropic desire to divorce oneself from other human beings.

Indeed, this fear of being alone is a strange thing, and one wonders where it comes from, or why we fall for it so consistently. Given that, in order for a corporate oligarchy to work, the elite who benefit from the willing contributions of what they consider to be worker bees need cooperation without serious thought, then it's understandable why the voice of business, the voice of politics, the voice of making more and more money, calls out to the rest of us that we need to "join the team!" "stop spending so much time by yourself!" "be a part of the business family!"

It is when we are alone, surrounded only by the sounds of the surf, or the breeze through the trees, or the awesome absence of sound in silence, that we dream, think, wonder, question, daydream, plan, pray, hope and sometimes simply marvel at the beauty surrounding us, a beauty we didn't notice the other day when our head was down, and we were focused on the phone.

Beautiful Art Takes Us Places

Catching the Breeze, a 20 x 16 canvas wrapped print, is available for a limited time promotional price of $74 at Steve Henderson Collections. This represents a 40% discount from the regular 20-inch-width canvas print price. The canvas print ships worldwide, and the promotional price is good through September 10, 2017. All products from Steve Henderson Collections come with a 30-day, money-back guarantee through Fine Art America. Find out more about the Catching the Breeze promotion-priced canvas by clicking on this link.

Every day, Catching the Breeze is available as a print in many formats (framed, canvas, metal art, acrylic, wood, poster) at Steve Henderson Collections, as well as an image on products, such as coffee mugs, phone cases, greeting cards, apparel, shower curtains and much more. Click on any of the images below to be taken to the product page at Steve Henderson Collections where you can find out more, as well as securely purchase the product.