I had a marvelous painting outing on Saturday. I started off my day in the Town of Floyd in a little nook behind Schoolhouse Fabrics. They have a little garden area and gazebo, and a view that I have been "watching" for some time. Saturday was the day to capture it. Overall, the view is rather "unextraordinary." But I liked the slope of the hill, and the fact that Buffalo Mt was in the distance.
How could I make this unremarkable view more remarkable? It was then that I eyed a square canvas and decided to turn it on end to accentuate the horizon line and also follow the lines of the hillside. I didn't even know if my easel would allow me to paint this way, but it did! It held it in place.
I enjoyed a very quick painting session, and left an area of the canvas unfinished. Not sure of the resolution just yet. Upon finishing, I got cleaned up and thought, "I'm hungry!"
I then headed in the direction of Meadows of Dan, and ended up at an overlook on the Parkway not far from where I live. It is a view I've captured a zillion times, it seems, but today, looking out over the expanse of Rock Castle Gorge, I realized it was "all about the clouds." The building clouds were thick and puffy and just wonderful. Full of color. Now all I needed was a quiet place that I could paint, and just the right view.
I left the overlook where I was and headed one more down the Gorge. I was able to take Pe'Pe' the Wonder Mule off road for some privacy. It was a nice view, with a big cloud hovering over the horizon, just waiting to be painted. I took out another square canvas and painted quickly to capture everything.
In the end, the sky changed, but the first inspiration of this big tower of clouds stuck with me. I also was eventually caught up to by a photographer from Charlotte, who, after parking down the road and walking a distance to get to me, was polite and asked if he could take my photo. I said yes, of course.
Overall, a great day! I didn't get sunburned (well, not too terribly much), and I came home with two works I was very proud of. Not bad, not bad at all for a summer day!
Hope to see you all out in the Town of Floyd this weekend!!! Come to the Town Jubilee!!!
Until next time, keep painting those happy trees!
joli
