Ohh. It's COLD this morning. As cold as the buns on a bronze statue (not that I'd KNOW how cold that is, just imagining). The sun is bright but has no strength to warm, so it's slow to melt off the killing frost we had here last night. The tulip poplars, leaves glowing gold these last weeks, are now browning and submitting themselves to winter's chill embrace.
So I'm thinking back to the glorious and warm Saturday we just had with our artist friends visiting.
Artists on the deck last Saturday with pencils, sketch pads, optics and of course, coffee.
We all moseyed out to the deck for a bit of early morning birding and some field sketching. Having so many crack birders on the farm meant we saw lots of birds. Sir Barry Van Dusen spotted a merlin rocketing over the meadow, heading magnetically south. Cindy "The Pastel Queen" House calmly called out the season's first double-crested cormorant flying high over the orchard. The last time Cindy visited, she and Zick added common raven to our property list (#181 at the time). And Mike "Banjo Man" DiGiorgio got both a blue-headed vireo (late record!) and a Cape May Warbler (even later record!). Julie and Jim Coe found the swamp sparrow that we hope is planning to spend the winter with us.
The artists sketched our eastern bluebirds and cedar waxwings. I stood slack-jawed at their talent at putting pencil to paper to create birds that, although simply rendered, shone with life.
Brenda Carter came to Indigo Hill from Ontario.
Barry VanDusen won the award for Most Avid Field Sketcher.
Later in the morning I created my own simple and edible art on the stove top, fed the troop, then shoved them out the door for a walk around the loop.
Heading out to walk the loop on a gorgeous October day.
Artists on the deck last Saturday with pencils, sketch pads, optics and of course, coffee.
Brenda Carter came to Indigo Hill from Ontario.
Barry VanDusen won the award for Most Avid Field Sketcher.
Heading out to walk the loop on a gorgeous October day.
4 comments:
I looked up the attendees on Google and I found that a lot of them have web sites. They all produce stunning work. I wish I had artistic talent like that. It astonishes me.
That loop looks so inviting. "Come see color, texture, wildlife... Just walk this way..." And then how it bends to the side in the distance, so that you can't really see where it is heading. A wonderful mystery lays just beyond the bend.
Heather
Wayne, PA
Hi Patrick:
I plan to post some of the artists' art soon, along with all of their URLs.
B,
Feel the need to express profuse appreciation again for the great food all weekend. Even more, a sense of wonder that you could produce such nourishing and delicious food, and be completely aware of what was needed in the projection room, and with all the participants. You have a sixth sense about tuning into people's needs. You energetically held the space for it all to happen, and it was pure magic. Big thanks forever.
S.
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