Archive for August, 2010
Maryland
When I reached Maryland, I was still in the mountains. This is ski country in the winter and with wonderful vistas in the summer. I traveled over several mountains, some at 2700-2800 feet high. (These are not the Rockies, folks, but very old mountains.) What amazed me was that the Eastern Continental Divide was only 2600 feet high where I crossed it.
The most beautiful mountain was the last one I crossed – Sideling Mountain at 1269 feet. Here engineers have blasted through the rock and I could see the layers of various colors as the mountain had been pushed upward thousands of years ago. What a treat for a landscape painter like me!
Goin’ Home
On Friday, I left Dayton, OH, bound for Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The land in western Ohio is very flat with trees here and there. After all, this is the corn belt, wonderful farming land, but east of Columbus it becomes gently rolling with more dense, fluffy deciduous trees. By the time I reached the eastern border of Ohio, I was in the foothills of the Appalachians.
My journey takes me through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, WV, again, then to MD. In WV, there is always an extra lane going up the mountain for slow traffic, and it ends at the top. Then there is a warning sign, a 5% – 7% grade for 5 or 7 miles. The longest one I found was a 6% grade for 13 miles! Going down, frequently there is a runaway truck ramp off to the right, paved with gravel, hopefully not needed, but available just in case.
It is exciting to travel through the mountains and the scenery is beautiful. For one who does landscape paintings, it is a feast for the eyes.
Keeping in Touch with Your Roots
With the rapid urbanization taking place around the globe it can be difficult to preserve our vision of nature. Few of us have the opportunity to live in areas that have rich wildlife and scenic landscapes. One of the easiest ways to satisfy your desire to experience the wilderness or countryside is through artwork.
As citizens from rural communities continue to migrate to cities, it can be therapeutic to maintain a connection with the country. A landscape oil painting is an easy way to quench your nostalgic thirst for home, but don’t think you need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a professional piece. When I find myself longing for the pastoral pleasures of home, I pull out my art supplies and create my own landscape. Not only does this help squelch my homesickness, I also get a sense of accomplishment and ownership through the piece.
Pat
My sister, Pat, and her husband, Jim, live on a 15 acre tract of land that is heavily wooded and gently rollng. It is a beautiful area with squirrels, birds, and sometimes deer and other wild life. They also have a pond, about 1/3 acre in size, which is home to frogs, turtles, fish and other critters.
A few years ago I did a large abstract landscape painting of the pond and entitled it, of course, Pat’s Pond. Now, it proudly hangs in their living room for all to enjoy.
Fort Loramie
On Sunday, my sister and her husand went to visit his mother in Minster, OH, very close to Fort Loramie, originally built as a protection from the Indians 150+ years ago. The plan was to take her to lunch and later go back to her home and spend some time visiting with her and attending to any of her needs.
It worked out that after lunch, I was able to go to the beautiul lake at Fort Loramie to do an abstract oil painting. Nowadays, it is an especially nice place to paint because along much of the lake is a park with trees and grassy areas, just right for a picnic and leisurely afternoon.
The Class Reunion
This past weekend was a class reunion for graduates of my high school. On Friday afternoon we met at the country home of one classmate and his wife for a picnic. His land is worthy of a landscape painting with its large circular pond and a fountain in the middle, a nearby gazebo with comfortable chairs and picnic table, and a garden of sunflowers nearby.
On Saturday, a few of us visited the new, modern high school built since my class graduated, and even enlarged since then. We also visited a museum with the biplanes used in WWII which had been built by a local company.
Saturday evening we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and continued the visits we began the previous night. It was good to see my fellow classmates and old friends again.
Illinois
The land along I 74 in Illinois,where I am traveling, is very flat. Years ago, the glacier smoothed it and left it in wonderful condition for growing corn, wheat, beans and anything else one would care to plant – and trees here and there. Only along he rivers can one find thickly wooded areas. As one who does abstract landscape painting, I am thoroughly enjoying the fluffy deciduous trees, scatterred with abandon across the land.
Also, along my travels are some wonderful names like Galesburg (why not Tornadoville or Stormburg?), home of poet Carl Sandburg, Spoon River, Knoxville, Peoria, Normal, Bloomington, Le Roy, Mahomet, Lake of the Woods, Champaign, Ogden, Fithian, and Danville. I wonder who named those places.
The Don King Chairs
In Beth’s yard (see yesterday’s blog) are several gardens. These are round, about 20’ in diameter, and are filled with many beautiful hostas and other shade loving plants, always with a tree in the middle.
In each garden among the flowers are always 2 chairs which are hand made from willow trees. The backs of the chairs are made of branches about ½” in diameter and the ends of the branches with even smaller diameters just stick up another 2-3 feet, much like Don King’s hair. Hence Beth’s husband calls these the Don King chairs!
It was near one of these gardens that I stood doing my oil painting of a huge maple tree. It was wonderful being in such a lovely and serene place.
The Weeping Hemlock Tree
Yesterday, Thelma and I painted at the home of Beth, a retired teacher, who lives in a lovely home with a large yard. The yard is about 3 acres in size, full of trees and gardens and lawn.
One of the trees is a weeping hemlock, some of whose branches hang down to the ground. The area inside the weeping branches is about 15 feet in diameter and Beth has hung tea lights on the branches. The “ceiling” is about 5 ½ feet high – enough that children love going in and feeling like Alice in Wonderland after she went through the looking glass. Beth’s grandchildren love playing inside the tree where it is cool.
Thelma does expressionism art and last week painted from a photo taken from inside the tree. Yesterday, she painted the weeping hemlock from the outside. She, also, loves the tree!
Trees
I love trees! Could you have guessed? And the more odd and gnarly, the better! These are the old soldiers with personalities! In my neighborhood on the Eastern shore of Maryland, there are very many “Christmas tree” pines as well as the tall loblolly and slash pines and deciduous trees, and I love them all! Unfortunately, my neighbor has lost 5 pines due to the pine borer. I’ve lost 2.
On my trip west, along I 70, the highway is often lined with dense forests of tall beautiful green pine trees, giving me a luxurious feeling. Further west along I 68, are mountains, ski resorts and a variety of deciduous trees.
Ohio and Indiana have mostly farm land with trees here and there, but north of Chicago there are many lakes and the trees are often pine, but many others as well. I drove past one stretch, about ¼ mile in length with one beautiful large weeping willow after another!
As one who does abstract expressionist art and loves trees, all these trees are truly a feast for the eyes!