Fall Leaves

Fall Leaves
Originally uploaded by linfrye

Daily Practice

It took us a long time to get to the plein air outing yesterday -- not for the distance, but for all the stopping we did to snap photos of the barns along the way -- each surrounded by signs of fall - cornstalks, hay bales, colored leaves. The lighting was awful, I have to admit -- but the variation of scenes was inspiring!

As was the paint out! This farm in Graham, NC was an incredible painting opportunity -- each turn presented a vignette to capture -- the owner, a sculpture of large pieces, had the most incredible array of objects d'art -- and his friend, who contributed to the landscape and sculpture collection, had huge MOVING sculptures .. INCREDIBLE! The wife of the owner apparently was a gardener, for each piece was set among flowers and ornamental grasses and shrubs that benefitted both the piece AND the garden.

Not only the sculpture, LAKE, gardens and 2 miles of walking trails, but barns, a cottage rennovated from the 1700s .... a glorious fall day -- and the opportunity to capture a piece of all this astonishing beauty.

But I have to blame it on beauty-overload. I painted, or tried to -- it took at least an hour to DECIDE what to paint -- and then - sketch, paint , wipe out, redo-- and it just wasn't working ...try as I might. Angles were off, lighting was off, mud was everywhere ... and so instead of embarrassing myself today, I'll simply admit to being intoxicated with the beauty I found there ...and I'll redo instead of trying to rescue ... my meager attempt.

So leaves today instead of cabin, or sculpture, or lake, or garden. At least for now. But oh my gracious -- what a place ....!!!