cows

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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Back in 2008, my friend Marc Taro took a speed plein air painting workshop from Xiangyuan Jie. I really like what Marc did that week, but unfortunately, Jie hasn't done another workshop of the sort. I also haven't set aside time to practice in that manner, as I usually set out to get in more finished work when I'm in the field. 

However, I've had a few outings lately where speed painting was the only way I could get any painting in. Still not quite as limited a timeframe as Jie's workshop (I think they worked on 5

 minute paintings), but quick nonetheless. In fact, I seemed to have just enough time to mix different colors and get them on the canvas. I did spent about half the time on the cows, as I wanted to practice cow painting for my Farm to Canvas series.

Why did I have a limited window? Well, this painting was done in Gerton, NC during a weekend getaway June 20th with Kate to celebrate our one year anniversary.  Gerton is just outside Asheville, in th

e heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We had a great time. Asheville is a fantastic place, and we hiked at Chimney Rock State Park, dined at great restaurants, and visited some very excellent art galleries.

I found time to sneak away while Kate napped to do this sketch. It was at a farm just down the road from our cabin. I'm not sure if this farm is organic or if these cows are exclusively grass-fed. However, Asheville is very much into local produce and meats, and is an excellent place for Farm to Table lovers.

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 I spent another day at the animal farm owned by Farm 255 and Farm Burger. Kate joined me and we spent several hours in a cow pasture in the hot Georgia sun. It was a breezy day, so it was nice most of the time. We both worked on some good farmer tans, too.

We started the day by driving to Athens and eating brunch at Farm 255. It was our first time there and we loved it. Kate had the rustic eggs with grits, and sausage. I had a braised beef, egg and cheese biscuit. The biscuit was one of the best I've ever had. It was served with pork braised greens. I'm not the biggest greens fan, but those were really good. Not sure if it was the pork flavoring or the fresh, local greens... 

So this scene is from the middle of the cow pasture. The cows did a very nice job moving around so I could choose from a lot of poses. The barns are the two main barns on this property, and the yellow emblem on the barn on the left is of the sun. I painted this on a 9x12 canvas panel so I could suggest a panorama.

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 Kate and I have been really getting into the 'farm to table' craze, which focuses on locally grown food. Most of our favorite places in Atlanta use local meat and produce, with much of it raised naturally and organic.

Our new favorite is a place called Farm Burger in Decatur. They grow a lot of the food themselves, and all the beef is natural and grass fed. The burgers there are just amazing. I went Friday night and I am already anxious to go again.

I'm such a believer in the organic and local food movements (pause while John Kuehne makes a joke), that I decided to start a series I'm calling "Farm to Canvas". So today I set out to find and paint a scene at the source of Farm Burger's mana, Full Moon Farms. 

Full Moon Farms is near Athens, GA. I arrived at the address I found on the internet, only to find that you couldn't see any part of it from a public spot. Since today was Sunday, I knew that I wouldn't be able to get a tour, especially on short notice. So I used my iPhone to see if there were any other eco-friendly farms and found out that Full Moon had moved to two locations. I set out on the one location that I could find an address for, Flat Rock Farms.

Actually, I'm not sure if I found Flat Rock Farms. I was at the address I found, but didn't see any sign or other indication that I was at the right place. But nevertheless, I found a great scene to paint. I set up in the church parking lot of Johnson United Methodist Church. It was a very enjoyable day, and I even had a couple of nice folks stop by to see my work. One was another artist who asked me several questions about oil painting (and if you read this blog, please send an email or comment!). It helped my painting a lot explaining some of the aspects of plein air to her. As she drove off, I thought about how I needed to apply my own advice. 

So these cows may or may not be raised organically. I can vouch that they ate grass when I painted them.

Now that I know the area, I plan to see if I can get access to some of these places so that I know I'm painting an organic farm. I really would like to see the operation at Full Moon Farms. And I really want to visit Athens and trying their other restaurant, Farm 255. 

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Well, the honeymoon is over and I'm back in Atlanta. Yesterday I was able to do a very quick painting  before I had to pack and leave. All over Maui and Hawai'i, Kate and I were surprised at the number of cattle farms. And I was jealous. Oh, to be a cow in Hawaii. All the lush grass you can eat and great weather all the time. No snow, fresh air and just enough rain. There were hardly any flies on the Big Island, and the breeze kept the few away. And a fabulous view of the ocean.

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