Afternoon in the Garden (at Kill Creek Farm)

In search of sunflowers at the Kill Creek Farm - I found a them in the private garden of the 1870's farmhouse.  The larger field of sunflowers had been eaten by deer and was being mowed to the ground as I arrived in the morning!  Yikes!  I had been excited to paint sunflowers -as they are SO beautiful in the field!  They are just as wonderful in the garden, and here they are sandwiched between zucchini and zinnias, with the Kill Creek Barn in the background.  There were bee hives down in the pasture - and the bees LOVED the natural bug repellant I had sprayed my arms and legs with!  The honey bees kept landing on me and licking the essential oils from my skin - no kidding!  I found that if I didn't react, they just walked around my skin for a while - and flew off!  I couldn't keep shooing them off - I was too busy painting - unless they landed on my face!  That is a "no bee" zone! Just another plein air experience!  This painting is my 999th in 999 days - and Day 26 in the 30 day painting challenge!!

on location

Goats in the Pasture at Kill Creek Farm

In the Pasture at Kill Creek Farm
Oil on wood, 14x11

In the early morning, it looked as though rain would be my painting companion.  But, it turned out to be a beautiful painting day - even warm at 88 degrees by the time I finished this one!  I have been to this historic farm several times through the years to paint, but I have never actually painted near the farmhouse and old barns!  The goats were very interested in me at first, but soon grazed on to a greener field, ending up back in the woods!  Whenever I paint animals en plein air, I get their shapes in as fast as I can - you never know when they will dart out of sight!  It was so quiet where I painted, I could even hear a rat chewing on the old dead log behind me!  My daughters used to have pet hamsters, rats and mice - so I know that noise!  Painting number 998 in 998 days and Day 25 in the 30 day painting challenge.

Sunflowers and Pumpkins

Sunflowers and Pumpkins
Oil on linen board, 8x10

My first painting of the season with pumpkins, so I finally feel like fall is arriving!  My second painting at the Sunflower Festival, these gorgeous beauties were brought in by a local farmer.  As I finished my first painting, I turned around to see these being pulled out of his truck and placed on the tables under his tent.  A trailer of pumpkins also in tow, we were allowed to place them where we wished for a plein air still life!  The colors were so rich in the noon sun, and the cool reflected light from the tent cast a dreamy light on the arrangement.  I had only one surface left, and that was a linen board given to me by an artist friend to try.  It was so lightweight - I had to clamp down my easel onto it to keep it in place.  It moved a little under my brush, which wood never does.  It was white - which I never start with, but I found that brushing on a mid tone with a little safflower oil made a perfect wash!  I wiped it around the surface with a paper towel until most of the oil was off, then began sketching in the composition with my pastel stick.  The stick was a little resistant to an oiled surface, but I could still use it.  The paints behaved as they would on canvas, so this lightweight surface option might be a good choice for overseas travel, or anytime surfaces needed to be checked in for flight.  I much prefer the birch boards, but they would get pretty heavy in a hurry.  This is painting number 636 in as many days, and painting number 26 in the 30 Day Challenge.