Down in the Holler

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, along with it most of the color fall brought this year. I did get a few last days of orange, but that's all over now. The painting of the garden is a subject that I've painted several times before. I touched this up after about 3 hours outside and I'm still a bit iffy about it. That center of interest is too near the center.
The painting above I think is one of the better I've done and required no touching up. This is another scene that I have painted many times—if you go back far enough in this blog you are sure to see it. This little crick, as we'd call it in Ohio is down about 100 feet below my house "in a holler" as they say in Appalachia. The color is so true and the reflection of the trees ended up being the key here, giving it little light at the bottom of all those heavy earth tones.

Heading into the holidays

As we rush towards the end of the year and the start of another I've been trying to concentrate more and more on my art and find a way to make it a more sustainable part of my life. I almost have to start getting some kind of return on all the time that I spend painting and researching and thinking about painting. It's time to get serious or move on.
Unicoi Lake Trail
Still working on the 100 plein air paintings goal— finished 66 so far. This last weekend I was up at Unicoi Park all day on Saturday and did three painting of the lake, one ended up getting damaged so I need to do some retouching, I set up on the dock at the end of the lake for a different view than last time I painted here. It was cloudy but not raining and I like a gray day—makes it easier to catch the scene without the sun changing so quickly. I used a composition that I've used before and appears to work well, I split the image in two with both sections being almost equally weighted but the center of interest falls to the left side. This view is of the small visitor center in the campgrounds and a path that winds around from left to right. Quite a few people stopped by while I was there for close to eight hours.
Abstract in Alizarin
The second painting is from the same dock and has a very strange feel to it —on one side I have the walkway in perspective this leads to the path which heads off the the left. The odd thing here is the mix of this very 3-D walkway and the path which turns into a almost 2-D pattern of color and shape. At the time I thought it was very interesting, especially the color but this may be too much to get working on a 9x12 canvas.

Fall's last call

Saturday plein air. Old Wigley Road. This one lane road snakes back off Hwy 92 not to far from the first house I bought in 1986 for 45 Gs —probably not worth much more than that now. I was out in the middle of the woods painting this and a young girl snuck up behind me "Oh my mom paints" —next thing I know, mom is checking me out and has to have me back to her house for a look see at her work. So we trudged though the woods to her house. Gal's got like thirty paintings plastered all over the ground floor of her center hall. Well, some of it interesting. She sure was nice, and you know I'm a sucker for talking art. An hour later I finished up and loaded the Z— got back for cocktails with my new drinking buddy Louise.
It's been a very nice Fall and somewhat unexpected. The color here has been strong and long. I might just get one more weekend before it's all gone.

Mabry Park Preview

While painting up on Wesley Chapel Road last weekend a gentleman stopped his truck in the middle of the road to tell me that I should attend the preview of the new Mabry Park the up-and-coming Saturday. I've been noticing the signs at the junction of Sandy Plains and Wesley Chapel for about the last year or so but I've seen nothing of any work being done. The reason for that as it turns out is that the county secured the property (27 acres) but has provided no funds to develop it. The land is part of a large pastureland off the main road and has access only through adjacent private property. So you really can't see it from the road and you can't go back and enjoy it with out trespassing on private property—whatever! Now a group of concerned citizens, and there are many in these parts got together and started an organization to do what organizations do best—get together and organize. They plan to raise enough money to build an access road so you can drive on back there and look around. Good plan, and I hope it works. They have a web site too http://www.mabrypark.org/
That being said the property is just fine without all the developing they will do and money they will spend. Right now it's perfectly lovely with horses running around on the hills and trees growing wherever they please. Funny thing is, because this property was cleared for pasture way back when and has been kept that way and it has some wonderful vistas that would certainly grow away if it were not for horses and hay wagons. It's a typical farm pasture and really not much else— That's fine, I like it that way. I could do a hundred paintings back there.
I got up early on Saturday and took the shuttle bus they had arranged for. I was a wonderful fall day and the trees along the edges of the pasture were on fire with color. I set up at the lowest part of the property and attempted to condense the view on a 9x12" board —impossible! Several visitors stopped by and cheered me on as I attempted my task but in the end I did it little justice. Being the determined guy I am I marched up to the highest point of the park avoiding horse manure and painted the opposite view. A bit better, again with much encouragement from visitors. I met a quite a few of the organizers, a Cobb County commissioner that I was a little too casual with. I also met Ed Mabry who once owned the property and I was also interviewed by the newspaper who published my old age in the paper the next day. They did mention I was a professional landscape painter, quite a compliment. All in all I was back at the house by three avoiding the wrath of my mother-in-law. I think the photos came out better than the plein air, I suppose I should take up photography.

Autumn on Wesley Chapel

Shock of shocks, this in not 9x12"! I broke out and did this long view of the horse pasture up on Wesley Chapel road. I've been meaning to do this long view for quite some time and I made a special MDF board just for it. I was interested in the muscadine grape vine and placement of the trees almost like a necklace. This is an idea I gleaned from a painting by Degas of a horse race. Interesting association because this painting includes a few of them. Size is only 6.5 x 17.5 and I think this would make a good larger painting. The background was at first quite detailed with the autumn tree line but I brushed it back so as not to take away too much from the foreground.

Painting with Munir

Cottage on Russel Lake
Last Saturday I was fortunate to get togeather with one of my painting buddies, Dr. Munir Kapasi. He is a doctor at here in Atlanta and a very talented painter in addition. I met Munir about a month ago while painting plein air up at Lake Burton. I convinced him to come with me over to Mountain Park where I paint so often. It was cold and windy, especially right on the lake but we both ended up getting one small 9x12 done in a few hours before we packed it in. This painting uses many of the techniques developed at the Whisson workshop and I think it has some of that look to it. I'm certainly not trying to mimic his style but just the medium and adoption of his dark rough-in give it that look.