Going Places | Cabin Art

Final Morning of Plein Air

On day three of the workshop, we met at a conference grounds, full of chapels, tabby cabins (converted slave quarters), views of the water and marshes, bells playing hymns every 1/2 hour, weddings, guests wandering the grounds.

I wanted to paint this cabin, but made myself choose something harder.

I chose this scene, because I have a bent toward bridges as a painting (and drawing) subject.

Funny to call this a “bridge scene” when there is more sky than anything else. Part of why I chose it was to learn from Laurel how to turn a fairly nondescript subject into something worth painting.

step one, following my sketch but with modifications after I eavesdropped on Laurel helping Peggy refine the same view (minus the bridge).

Step two, but what did I do this photo? It looks weird.

Then we had lunch, did a critique, and chose our afternoon subject. Not everyone wanted to do a second painting, but there was something I really wanted to paint.

And back at home, the kitties were just fine.

Show you tomorrow, our final travelogue post about my trip to Georgia.

Sightseeing in Georgia

After class on day 2 and before class on day 3, I went driving around, looking for things, taking in all the sights. I love exploring!

There is always time to look at wildflowers.

Laurel told me this church, which was in the Eugenia Price novels, was a must-see. When she said Eugenia is buried in the adjoining cemetery, I asked for directions. Something was happening inside the church, so I didn’t go inside.

I wondered around among the graves, but didn’t take many photos. It was tempting, because I saw a plot called “Graves” and another one called “Coffin”. There was also one called “Outlaw”. These were people’s names, of course.

I met someone who showed me what I was looking for.

The next morning I drove through the Victorian neighborhood of Brunswick, just being a looky-loo. It isn’t often I get to see such fabulous houses or such a variety of architecture, so I was definitely gawking.

For sale. I wonder how much they are asking. I ducked it (DuckDuckGo is my preferred search engine) and saw there are 800-1600 homes for sale there. Not gonna find this one easily.

Churches on every corner. I didn’t have time to capture them all, but none were the plain-Janes of Tulare County.

I couldn’t figure out the meaning of this. Finally my host explained it to me. It means that bridges ice up sooner than the roads do.

These flowers were profuse and beautiful. I bought a wildflower guide to learn the name. None of the people I was hanging out with had much interest in wildflowers, definitely not the way we have been going gaga in Tulare County this spring.

Marsh, marsh, marsh. This is one of the draws of the area. What’s the difference between a marsh and a swamp? Do people go wading out in the marshes? Are there wildflowers out there? wildlife? Do people drown? So many questions.

My wildflower guide was grossly inadequate.

But, it did have the name of this beauty, an unfortunate moniker of “Spiderwort”. What??

Afternoon Painting at an Estate

Some of this will look familiar to you, since I did a rudimentary blog post while still in Georgia. Boy oh boy am I glad to be back with my laptop!

This is the continuation of the post on Monday about painting at the private estate on St. Simons Island. There were many possibilities, but I knew the clock was ticking so I needed to make a quick decision. I love architecture, so the back of the house won.

The formal garden with a maze was tempting.

This giant oak with wisteria winding up its trunk was interesting.

The moss was very interestingly weird, but would have been impossible to paint.

Simpler angle, and I could ignore the trees in the way.

Finished? I don’t know, because it looks so messy.

This is the front of the house. There was so much to see, and too little time.

Morning at an Estate

On day two of the plein air painting workshop, we were admitted to a private estate on 1000 acres on St. Simons Island. We drove about 1-1/2 miles behind a locked gate to reach the grounds of the home. Out of respect for the homeowners, I will eliminate many specifics but will show you photos.

We began the day with a tour by the caretaker, and then were set free to find a place to set up. This time we were on our own; Laurel didn’t tell us where or how to paint, although she circulated among us the entire time (and collapsed my beast of an easel on one visit!)

A couple of original Andy Warhol paintings, Jimmy Carter and Miss Lillian. (Remember, we were in Georgia.)

Oklahoma Judy, Georgia Bill, and Florida Marty discuss the various possibilities for painting.

This looks like a little canal, but sizable boats went past as we were painting.

The pool was about 1/5 full of greenish water.

After wandering around gawking, I chose this view. It was shady beneath the pergola of the pool house.

After lunch, we put the final touches on our paintings and then chose a new location for the afternoon.

And the grandkitties were just fine back at home.

Exploring and Sightseeing

First, an update.

Trail Guy wanted me to show you Scout and the grandkitties as they appeared yesterday. They are almost 2 weeks old now.

Now, back to Georgia. It took some focused discipline to concentrate on painting a new way when there were so many new sights to see. I was a good student, but I was eager for the next stage of exploring the area after class.

I want to know how many of the outbuildings were slave quarters, now referred to as “tabby cabins” because of the building material, called “tabby”.

This was not a fancy plantation house; the owners had their fancy home in Savannah.

The wildflowers weren’t profuse like they are in Three Rivers and most parts of California right now, but they were present.

Fresh flowers on the mantel of the fireplace in the building that housed the bathrooms.

I took the official tour of the plantation house. Our guide was knowledgable but less than vigorous, so the outbuildings were not included.

The rooms felt crowded to me. This is probably because we are giants compared to the era when those folks were alive.

Someone spent many hours knitting this bedspread, but what else was there to do, besides tell slaves what to do? So hard to imagine that life.

On the way to Laurel’s house after we painted, she dropped me off at the beach. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN BEACH!

It rained on me while the sun was also shining. I was ridiculously happy about it all.

Lots of weird jellyfish, and I only found 3 shells, which I left on the railing when I put my shoes back on.

After our visit at Laurel’s house, where she gave me a much needed private lesson in brush washing (how have my brushes survived my ignorance all these years?), I went to find the lighthouse that was featured in Eugenia Price’s novels, where I first learned of St. Simons Island. This is not the lighthouse.

THIS is the lighthouse! It is so much fancier than I imagined, all dressed up in a well manicured park area, surrounded by perfectly maintained historic brick buildings.

Look at these shadows on the side of the lighthouse. And you can bet there weren’t perfectly pruned shrubs around it in the era of the book I read.

I wonder if this lightkeeper’s cottage was the original. I wasn’t there during touring hours.

I walked back to the car along the beach, just full of gratitude that I got to be there and see these places.

Travelogue, Continued

On day #2 in Georgia, we gathered at a former plantation to begin painting with Laurel. There were 7 students, from Texas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Central California. (Yep, I think of Central California as a separate place from the rest of the state.)

The Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation is a State Historic Site, where rice was grown, and then after Emancipation, the “enterprising siblings of the fifth generation. . . resolved to start a dairy rather than sell their family home”. (Taken from the official handout at the park).

We wandered around doing sketches to get the feel of how to start, and then Laurel demonstrated for us. We followed her lead one step at a time while she circulated among us, offering tips, helps and suggestions for improving our paintings. The most important thing seemed to be setting up in the shade! Yup, humid and buggy, although I was never aware of getting bitten until I was scratching like a mangy dog at bites I didn’t know had happened.

We drove back on a closed road to the main plantation house area.

What is this cool little building?! Oh. It is the bathrooms. The white stuff at the base is old oyster shells – go figure.

Weird cluster of short palms was a common site, ‘though not as common as the sprawling oaks.

The marsh is out there. I wonder if the rice was planted in the marsh. My new friend Cathy is in the foreground, doing her sketches.

Oh wow, I want to see inside the house and inside the buildings and know what they were all used for. And what a dramatic sky!

This is Laurel’s set-up for plein air painting. She is very efficient and paints “all the time”, in her words. One of the many reasons I chose her for my instructor is that she also works from the double primary palette: 2 blues, 2 yellows, 2 reds and white.

We copied. This is my borrowed beast of a french easel with wobbly legs.

Hmmm, this is an ugly beginning, but all of my oil paintings begin ugly so I was not alarmed.

We paused for lunch under the oaks. (There’s my red backpack at the base of my beast of an easel. Trail Guy gave it to me for Christmas in 1986.)

Cathy from Georgia, with Bill from Georgia in the background.

You can see we are all painting the same scene, which is in front of us, but simplified and refined by Laurel. Real life is too full for a little 2-D canvas, particularly in this style of simplified shapes.

That’s all for this painting. Weird for me, but it measured up just fine to Laurel’s and the other participants.

Meanwhile, back at home, Scout and her kitties were just fine.

This was a long post. Tomorrow I’ll show you what I saw after the painting session was finished.

Fancy in Georgia

Today is my 11th blogiversary!

Now that I have a little distance from my trip to Georgia, I am beginning to sort out all I saw and experienced and learned. In retrospect, everything seemed fancy to this Central California artist/bumpkin. I don’t get out much, other than an occasional Alaskan cruise (2013) or a trip to Israel (2016).

I rented a car in Florida. Florida?? Yeppers. Never been there before. Lots of thoughts about new “economy” cars, which are far to fancy for my liking, and my left foot kept flailing around, seeking the clutch. Never did master the radio.

This lovely 1937 home is where I stayed with my new friends, who now feel like family. It wasn’t fancy, but it was simply gorgeous and gorgeously simple.

I sat under this giant mossy oak to wait for someone to come home after I locked myself out of their house, because I didn’t understand the fancy little gizmo on the door or how to get through the fancy automatic gate on foot.

The main street of Brunswick is very well preserved and landscaped.

Ever seen a green lizard? It is called an anole, “uh- NO-lee”. (Our lizards are fancy too, if you flip them over and see their blue bellies.)

This isn’t fancy, but it is impressive, on the campus of the fifth oldest high school in the country. The name is fancy: Glynn Academy. “Academy”? Yeppers.

This simple window felt almost familiar and friendly after all the other visual excitement.

All of this was my first afternoon in Georgia, before the plein air painting workshop began. There was a brilliantly designed fancy bridge, but I was driving an unfamiliar fancy car with an unfamiliar fancy phone/camera and didn’t dare try my usual drive-by-shooting-by-feel approach.

To be continued. . . tomorrow we begin painting plein air. Because I am back on my laptop, I can size the photos correctly, keep them upright, and type like a full-fingered humanoid.

Two in One Day

We painted today on a huge private estate that belongs to heirs of the Reynolds family, which was fabulous. It was also kind of muggy, but we were brave plein air warriors.

This time we were on our own to choose painting sites, one in the morning and a second site in the afternoon. Laurel patrolled, offering help throughout the day.

I stood under this pergola to paint. Shade was a requirement.

In progress (maybe I will show you the ugly steps down the road but not tonight)

Oh no, she fell over again while critiquing my painting,

The finished painting
My next choice

Now what have I done to my blog?? Sigh.

Here is the finished painting, I am too tired to continue with this one finger typing and bloggery misbehavior.

Both of these paintings were rectangular, not square, but I am quite inept at blogging on this little device–the normal controls aren’t showing up.

Tomorrow is the third and final day so we will continue next week.

Long Day Learning

We began the day with sketching exercises, walking around the grounds of a former plantation turned state park.

Teacher Laurel demonstrated a step at a time, and then we copied those steps. She is a very thorough explainer.

She was actually standing upright, but I messed something up here.

Rough start but we had confidence in our highly accomplished instructor.

Almost my end but now it is drying on top of my friend’s fridge, so we’ll wait for the final photo later.

My middle picture is out of order – usual excuse.

Then I went sightseeing!

Dadgum device flipped the picture again so I ‘ll quit now.

Locked out in Georgia

Travel is full of challenges. The current one is having locked myself out of my friend’s house. This gives me the opportunity to try posting to my blog from a small handheld device that I am reluctantly learning to use.

Category: Going Places

Today is my 11th blogiversary!