I drove to Colorado Springs with my daughter over Thanksgiving break to visit my niece and great-nephew. It was a good nine-hour drive, but very worth it. We had an awesome Thanksgiving and got to see Colorado for the first time.

 

The minute we hit Colorado from the south I was amazed by how beautiful the landscape was. I've always seen photographs and paintings of mountain scenery, but I was never particularly impressed or amazed by them. Now I know why! A photograph does not do any justice to the raw beauty and majesty of the Colorado landscape. The magnitude of the mountains and vastness of the landscape left me in awe. The billions of years it took to create such beauty  made me reflect on how tiny each and every one of us are, yet it was invigorating at the same time. If this breath-taking landscape can be created, anything can be created. It's magic.

 



 I took a ton of pictures of the scenery! This was simply because I was trying to capture what my eyes were seeing, but none of the pictures captured it. This solidifies my belief in painting, because a camera will never see things like our eyes see them. A painting can also capture the emotions involved in an image with different brushstrokes, colors, and exaggerations. A photograph can't do that, and I think this is also the reason why I don't like the super realistic paintings of mountain scenery. It's devoid of feeling. As I was snapping as many pictures as I could in Colorado, Sophia said, "I have a feeling you're going to be painting this soon." Maybe Sophia, maybe I will.