Memorial Day in Middleburg

Painting in the Middleburg Baptist Church Cemetary

    Here I am painting on Sunday in one of my favorite towns, Middleburg Virginia.  I was in town with 16 other painters all members or guests of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters.  I am a guest and a candidate for membership and as such I am able to participate in any of the monthly paint outs.  I try to do as many as possible and enjoy being with this great group of people.  The WSLP is one of the oldest painting clubs in the country and membership is kept to 40.  Membership is for life or until someone moves away or leaves for other reasons. I think it will be a few years before I can be considered for full membership.
     I arrived in town early because I didn't know where I wanted to paint.  I drove around for awhile and didn't see anyone else.  When I passed this beautiful, historic cemetary I turned around and pulled in.  What a great idea for Memorial Day!  Little American flags had been placed over the brass markers that lay flush to the ground.  The feeling is really more of a park setting than a cemetary.  No matter what direction I faced there was something interesting to paint.  I settled on this view as my eye was drawn to the enormous red barn that was on the edge of the property.  Web Bryant, who is also a guest and candidate, was attracted to the cemetary as well and had the same thought about Memorial Day. We set up in close proximity to one another. It is always more fun to have someone there to paint with.  As it turns out the group scattered far and wide!

Web comfortably ensconced under an old shade tree

   Web's focus was on one of the most enormous oak trees I have ever seen.  Honestly the trunk looked like it belonged on a sequoia!  Web has a book on the historic trees of Virginia and he is going to let me know if the one he is painting is listed.  We figure it has to be at least 19th century.  Web and I are also members of the Art League Plein Air Painters and we both agreed that we should get that group out to Middleburg as we want to take a crack at a different view in the cemetary.  The problem with Middleburg is there are so many things to paint it is hard to settle down and pick one.  I really would like to paint the Swedenburg Winery which is just outside town.  That will be stupendous in the fall!

Mark posing in front of the group assembling for critique

    We stopped painting at 11:30 (really hard to quit) as the group had been invited to member Sarita Moffet's house in Middleburg for lunch.  Usually we brown bag it and eat while critiquing paintings.  Today was different and Sarita treated all of us to a delicious and most generous lunch! Her home is beautiful.  Afterward we all headed out to the patio and leaned our paintings against the wall for the usual critique. There were some wonderful paintings to see and as usual it is interesting to see all the different styles, palettes and takes on similar subjects.  I had mixed all my own greens and thought I had toned them down from the overwhelming emerald green of the actual site.  When I saw my painting next to the others I realized I have some work to do in that area.  I looked at mine and I thought Kermit!  Seriously, that is the thought that went through my head.  Kermit the Frog would have blended right into my painting:)  I loved the grayed greens and atmosphere in Mark Ingraham's paintings (he is my sponsor for the WSLP) and others managed to express the green without being too much so.  It didn't seem to bother the others as they were more focused on the red barn which they felt needed some work.  It looked plastered on.  I received some good advice about toning down the color and letting some of the barn show through sky holes in the trees.  They also suggested more reddish tones in the wall to tie the painting together.  The composition is good but the painting needs some serious tweaking.  I'll post it when I have done so.

OTHER NEWS:  Tomorrow we are hanging the show at the Ratner Museum.  I will take some photos and post them as it will be easier to do that tomorrow than at the opening reception on Sunday.  Technically the show is open as soon as we finish hanging it.  I will be happy to see it hung!  Maybe now I will get back to posting more frequently.  http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/