The report focused on smart investments for artists, and Gray’s item of choice was his Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom digital camera. The artist uses the camera not only for reference images, but also for the benefit of clients. Whenever someone purchases one of Gray’s paintings, he or she also gets a photo card of the work and a CD containing the photos shot the day it was created—“to show them the flavor of the day their pastel was painted,” Gray says.

Here are some images from Gray painting on a dramatic day at Ships Point in the Gulf of Georgia on Sept. 8, 2007. As he explained in an e-mail, “The day started out blue with scattered clouds depicted in the pastel, but ended up dark and threatening.”