This piece was commissioned by the owners of Bentley Ridge Vineyards, Jim and Sandy Bland.  When Jim invited me to lunch at their beautiful vineyard I knew he was thinking about commisioning a painting but what he said rather surprised me.  He requested that I create a painting focused on the vineyard, but he said it was totally up to me to decide how and what to include in the composition. He said "I'm not going to say anything else, I don't want to give any imput or instructions, it is entirely up to you.  In fact, we don't want to see it until you're finished. When I finally finished the painting several months later I invited Jim and Sandy to join me and decide on the framing.  Their initial reaction was yes, they love it!  But then Jim wispered jokingly in my ear that one of the homes in the distance belonged to a rather strange neighbor that annoyed them and we both laughed.  I arranged to deliver the painting after it was framed and that gave me enough time to enlarge a tree just enough to obscur the annoying neighbor's house.  When we hung the painting on their wall it took a minute before they discovered that the neighbor had basically disappeared into the hills. They couldn't believe I made the change and couldn't have been happier. It now hangs in their beautiful home in the vineyard located in the foothills of San Jose California.  The image will also be used to create the label for their bottled wine.