Landscapes

John and I drove up north a bit Saturday morning. I wanted to show him some of the excellent landscape vistas we have  in Georgia, so we went up to Dahlonega and on over to Neel Gap. We walked a few feet on the Appalachian Trail, but spent most of our time hiking the Byron Reese, then setting up on a spot on the Freeman Trail. I had found this spot a few years back and knew John would like it. Indeed he did, and except for the annoying roar of some of the motorcycles on the road below, it was idyllic. 

It was just fantastic to be hanging out with John all weekend. The style he is painting now is really awesome and fitting to the kind of work he's done over the years.  I especially dig the flower painting and hope to see it in person before too long. The energy he brought also helped me along, as I was able to hit the color notes on the sunlit mountain better than I have before. Thanks to John for coming to see us. The dogs already miss him.

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I was happy to wake up this morning to find that the end of the world hadn't happened. I have too much to I'd like to accomplish.

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Last weekend Kate went to the beach with her Mom, so I decided to split town also and catch some Spring painting and a bluegrass festival. Luckily, Dad was up for joining me on the trip. As I've mentioned before, Dad is a great painting trip companion, as he is happy to go with the flow and does a great job meeting people along the way.

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What are the three best things you want to have on the first Spring weekend of the year? Well, you won't believe this, but I had all of them this past weekend. No kidding. I had perfect camping weather, a gathering of over one hundred banjo players and a perigee-syzygy. Yes, you read that right. I can't believe it either.

So stay tuned as I'll be going into those things everyone dreams about over this and the next two posts, and how I was lucky enough to have them all in the same weekend.

Friday I headed down to High Springs, Florida for the 2011 Suwannee Banjo Camp. It is held every year at O'Leno State Park in the north central part of the state. The camp was amazing, but more about that in my next entry.

When warmer days first begin and the leaves start to sprout on the trees, I get a big time urge to go camping and sleep outside in my little ultralight tent. As it turns out, Kate was in Houston helping her mother and sister throw a bridal and a baby shower (for two different people), so I got to have a very Don-activity indulgent trip while she was gone. I had been reading about the camp for months and the location made it a perfect choice for my bachelor weekend.

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Saturday morning was pretty cool. I was painting in the Florida sunshine with my buddy Joe Miller, on a sidewalk outside a baseball park, just an hour before the first pitch. He and I were in Ft. Myers, FL painting the City of Palms Park, home of the Boston Red Sox every March since 1993.

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I don't play golf, but I recognize that a treat we have in the South is the fact that we can play it almost every month of the year. Sunday here in the ATL was amazing weather-wise. Later that afternoon, I knew I had to get out and paint before day passed me by.

So I called up my buddy Joe, who just got a ton of paint supplies for Christmas this year. Unfortunately, I was running way late from an errand and we didn't have time to make it to the Chattahoochee Rec Area, much less any where farther away. So we walked to nearby Freedom Park and meandered to Candler Park, where we found this nice view by one of the greens of the Candler Park Golf Course.

It was great to get out in the sunshine after all this frigid weather we've had. I now feel quite charged up and anxiously await getting back into the mountains or on the farm.

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Happy New Year! I was fortunate this year to spend the week between Christmas and New Years Day in Steamboat Springs, CO. Kate's folks have a condo there and we had a fantastic time celebrating the holidays.

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 Friday night's art walk was a lot of fun. Many thanks to George, Jason, Terry, Sean, Olivia, John, Jared and the rest of the group at Farm Burger and Fowler Farms for their support.

A big thank you to everyone that came by the show. It is always such a great feeling to share my work and see everyone's response. One unique thing about this display was the fact that very possibly, people were viewing a painting that depicted their dinner that night. And yes, I did use that joke a lot Friday night.

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 My favorite paintings are often the ones that were done in conjunction with some kind of adventure. These two paintings fit that criterion. 

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If you want to do some hard work, there is no better place to do so than on a farm. 

So it was fitting that when Jie agreed to spend some time with me landscape painting, he chose Fowler Farms from the list of places I suggested we paint.

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