Brook Run
Available...Views of a Field Whose Days are Numbered
The trick is to get them home without messing up my car, or smearing the paintings. The closer I can keep my car to the painting site, the easier it is to paint. In this location, I am able to back my car right up to the site where I want to place my easel.
The sign announces the field is "AVAILABLE". How civilized.
This field is on U.S.Route 1, Brook Road, north of Richmond, Virginia, and is for sale. Already a section has been sold and has a retirement community—The Atlantic—built on the land. I wonder if the residents appreciate the view they have—because they won't have it for long. I go by often to photograph the field, or paint, even if it is a quick sketch. What fascinates me is the way the color of the grasses change with the seasons, especially the streaks of orange and violet when wet in the fall and winter. Then there's the lavender and mint green in the early morning, or late evening.
In April I discovered the pleasures of painting IN my car. A little cramped, but using 5"x7" MDF board taped to cardboard (to make it easier to handle), and my palette on the back of my front seat, passenger side (I love my Matrix!), I managed quite well. Now I can paint in the rain, in the heat, and in the cold. Just smaller.
June 1, 2009—the sale sign is down. What now...
Early July, 2009—a new sale sign is up. A new realtor...Letting us know the field is for "Sale/Lease", and "Will Build to Suit".
See all my Brook Run Field paintings in my new show
Available...Views of a Field Whose Days are Numbered
at
Crossroads Art Center
2016 Staples Mill Road
Opening Friday, July 17, 2009 6-9 p.m.
through September 8
It began as a fascination with the color of the tall grasses, and how they changed with the seasons, the lighting, and the weather. A sale sign went up, and part of the field was plowed under. Construction began.
A second sign announced that the rest of the field was "available". Tick tock, tick tock....
