Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Apple Orchard, Gettysburg

oil on paper 5.75"x7"
I'm starting to feel more settled after so many days on the road. Participating in the Gettysburg Artist Colony this past week was enlightening in many ways. For one thing, it made me realize how odd I am. Ha! Yes, shortly after arriving at a new location, the other artists seemed to be able to dive right in and paint while I would wander for 20, 30, 40 minutes trying to find something- I knew not what until it appeared. And to my embarrassment, sometimes nothing struck my fancy and I just didn't paint.

This...slowness of getting in gear always happens when I am new to an area, but all too often just plain happens. And if I'm not completely pleased with a composition, then a subject is just a collection of disparate little parts- gestalt never happens, and painting is as dull as sitting in a waiting room. Yet Gettysburg was SO beautiful!! 

Here is a painting completed at the Rose Farm in Gettysburg. I had snuck away from the group and arrived an hour early, giving me some lead time to actually get something done with the allotted time. 

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful greens. Lovely painting!

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  2. Everyone has her own rhythm - it's good to know yourself, and not let yourself be pressured. Arriving an hour early was a great thing to do!

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  3. Nice grens!

    I know exactly what you mean, I can take for ever to 'settle' on something to paint and the longer I take the more anxious I become, the I find myself painting something because I must, and then all is lost!

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  4. You are not odd at all ! I do the same thing :-D

    Lovely painting!

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  5. Thanks Linda, Amy, Nigel and Helen. Nigel and Helen, it is SO great to hear that you both have the same "issue"!

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