georgia

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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It is that time of year again. No, not quite Christmas yet. Rather, it is time for the Telephone Factory Art Show this Saturday 11-7 and Sunday 1-6. It's always a great show and a lot of fun. Looks like over 30 artists will be exhibiting, including yours truly. You also get to check out the cool loft apartments at Telephone Factory, and our good friend Sunny has graciously let us use her space again this year.

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Normally, my blog is just about my artwork and occassionally my banjo picking. While the site has links to environmental organizations, I rarely voice strong personal opinions. However, today is Blog Action Day and the subject this year is Water. So I'm participating this year and this is the first of an annual event where I'll get up on a soap box a bit.

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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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 Yesterday I went back to the farm that supports Farm Burger and Farm 255. I got to meet John and Holly Ivy, who own and live on the farm. They were super hospitable and I got to learn a lot about the place I've been painting lately.

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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 Storm of the Century made its way down to Georgia yesterday. Things looked really awesome with all the snow. I felt like I was in New Hampshire instead of Atlanta. A lot of it has melted by now, but I was able to go out this afternoon and paint a quick sketch. It was good to work on the structure of trees, although I am eagerly awaiting the leaves to return this Spring. I did this painting at good ol' Freedom Park.

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  I often feel like the days are too short. There is always so much that I want to do and time seems to fly by. However, today is a bit special, as we shifted our clocks to standard time last night. I have always found it a bit jarring, as you start to notice the autumn days getting slowly shorter, then one day - BAM! - sunset at 5:45. This time of year is very fleeting in many ways. The sunlight is at a premium, and mother nature teases us for a few weeks out of the year with the brilliant colors of the deciduous trees. This afternoon I went about 60 miles north of Atlanta to Dahlonega, GA and painted in the vineyards of the Montaluce Winery. A beautiful place they have with views of the very start of the Appalachian Mountains. It was a great drive and I'm always amazed at the variety of colors in the fall leaves. I picked this spot as I liked the very green tree on the right and the yellow-green vines set against the earthy tones of the surrounding forest. I especially enjoyed how the backlighting brought out those colors.

So about this sunlight thing. I'm actually not as down about it this year as I have been in the past. This summer I was introduced to nocturnal painting at the Marc Hanson workshop I took. However, I have only had a couple of chances to try my hand at it. Now with the time difference, I plan to scout out some good night time scenes in my area. We'll see what happens.

"Montaluce Vines"

oil on lead primed canvas

SOLD

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