Painting at Willow Pond Lavender Farm in Fairfield PA

My easel with "Willow Pond" in progress, 11x14 oil on gessoboard

      This weekend I attended Bobbi Pratte's plein air workshop in Fairfield PA.  It was spectacular! Great weather, great comraderie and great food!  All I had to do for two days was paint, eat and enjoy the company of friends.  If that isn't a vacation I don't know what is.  Add in all that lavender and stress just fell away.  I think I ate more this weekend than I eat in a week at home.  How nice to spend the morning painting and then break for a five course, lavender infused lunch. It was quite a change from my usual bottle of water and granola bar. Who knew you could do so much with lavender.  The food was beautiful to look at and even better to consume. The next photo is what I spent two hours doing after that gastronomic treat:)  We started painting again at 3:30 and worked until after 7:00.  I like the start I got on that painting and it will be easy to finish in the studio.  The skies were beautiful all day but particularly then.

Siesta time!

     Everyone arrived by Friday evening and we kicked the weekend off with a welcome dinner at Hickory Bridge Farm where a number of us were staying.  There were 20 of us at an enormous table and dinner was served family style.  Five vegetables, three meats and six delicious desserts to choose from.  It was a great start to the weekend. I think I sampled everything!  We met the following morning at 7:00 for breakfast and were at Willow Farm by 8:00 to start painting.  Since I arrived early on Friday I was able to squeeze in a painting at Hickory Bridge so the painting you see on the easel above was my second painting. Of the four I did this one is the only one that is complete.  My Friday evening painting had to stop near completion because of a sudden thunderstorm.  I will be doing several posts about this weekend and show each painting in progress and then the four of them finished.  I think all of these are keepers and will escape "the pile".
      More about the weekend and more photos tomorrow......http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/

Bobbi giving a demo on Saturday morning

The view from my easel Saturday morning with Debra Nygaard painting