AKA Day 3 at the Plein Air Retreat
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| 4 Versions of schoolhouse -- Which is Janet's? Which is mine? |
The third day started out sunny, so many of us headed over to the old schoolhouse to paint. I love all of the versions of these four paintings, don't you? It was a good morning painting, although we faced typical plein air woes--dust and bugs and wind! The bugs loved our paint and canvases, the canvas of my sky was filled with dirt and bug--ugh! Still, it was a good morning, although the wind got so blustery many of us packed up early.
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| Selfie! |
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| Janet, ArtVenture Partner! |
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| Schoolhouse in the AM! |
After lunch the sky darkened and the wind got strong, it really looked like rain wanted to pour down on us. After lunch Janet and I decided to drive around and "scout" locations, taking reference photos. We had a map of locations were we could paint-- we had a lot of driving to do as there were miles of dirt roads between
each location. Needless to say, we hadn't seen most locations!
At lunch we had learned of a new location near the pond, which we decided to check out. But the sky oh the sky was the darkest meanest gray -- we really thought it was going to pour on us! Hey, let's keep moving and taking photos--ok! We followed each other in our vehicles down dirt road after dirt road--it was an adventure!
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| CC Farm |
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| CC Farm |
First we went to CC Farm and there we met Al, a lovely man who took us for a ride on his 'Gator'--let the ArtVenture Begin! A Gator seems to be a cross between a golfcart and a four wheeler/race tractor. Gator's drive quickly through the woods, Al was happy to show us some of his 220 acres and where most artists like to paint. There was a lovely creek, but it was fairly far in--would have been a long walk with our art equipment. He is a lovely and kind man with a beautiful property.
It still looked like rain, so we decided to scout more locations. Where should we go next?
On the way to the next farm along a road we saw some cows (unfortunately no place to pull over and paint). The cows in the sunlight were gorgeous! When there was no traffic, we stopped and took a few photos. Now I have to learn to paint a cow!
The next farm was atop a hill, and I fell in love with the farmhouse, taking many pictures. We did not go to meet the farmer, but did decide this would be a nice location to paint--wish we had found this place sooner!
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| Mary's Place |
Next we drove over to Cedar Creek to get pictures of the North and South views. Again, despite being a dirt road this was a busy road! We pulled over to get some photos. While I was taking photos, a local woman stopped and asked me, " Are you an Intern?". Tee hee (I had my Name tag & Plein Air Painter badge on)! Nope, I am participating in the plein air painting event! Then she stopped her car to talk to Janet who was behind me. As we had told her we were painters taking photos, she told us we had to see the flowers at her house! She gave Janet directions to her house, so I followed Janet in my car and we went to check out Mary's property! The Adventure Continues!
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| Mary's Place |
Mary's property is amazing--atop a hill with many lovely trees and flowers. Also, she has a horse who came out to say hello to us! When we looked out from her vista, we saw a creek below. The sky was bluer now, the grey clouds gone. Mary's property also had a lovely little bridge across the creek. Her property was beautiful, we left a thank you note and our business cards.
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| Mary's Horse |
Other than photo references which we will paint later, we also learned that
the kindest most beautiful people are Artists AND those who support artists. Thanks to all who opened their farms and locations for us to paint, we loved every minute! We laughed and smiled and giggled our way through this day -- many thanks to Janet for being my ArtVenture Partner! I still SMILE thinking about this fun ARTVENTURE DAY!
