North Bennington, Vermont Plein Air

I just returned from painting in Vermont at the North Bennington Plein Air Competition . Marcus came along to sketch and take pictures when I was too busy painting. It was great!

Check-in was at Taraden B&B where the event was held in a huge barn on the property.

Minutes after we arrived artists Jane Ramsey, Ruth Randall and co-director Bob Lowary showed up.  

The barns on this property once housed a large amount of dairy cows.  They are completely renovated inside with the original exterior intact.  Perfect!

Taraden sits on acres of land full of open meadows, trails, trees and views of the Green Mountains. 

 We were early for the check-in, so we took a ride up Burgess Road to scout out the dairy farms and the view of Bennington from the high ridge.

When we returned to Taraden we found Tony Conner and James Gurney hanging out in front of the barn.  Everyone was arriving and boarding....

...a large wagon hitched up to a pair of huge American Cream horses.

We all got on board and the guided tour of North Bennington began.

The center of town has all these old mill buildings built right along the river. 

While the wagon was rocking and rolling around town Jim continued to sketch away - what a trooper. I was busy just trying to keep the camera steady.

These barns housed a black smith shop. Now they are full of repaired lawn mowers, bikes, cross terrain vehicles and anything else that needs fixing...  

  

After our horse drawn wagon tour of North Bennington, Marcus & I walked up a trail to the top of the ridge behind Park-McCullough. 

At sunset the sun finally broke through the cloud cover that rolled across the mountains all day.

Looked like we might have a nice sunny painting day for tomorrow. 

Check out James Gurney's blog of  hot reports of North Bennington Plein air