In southwestern Vermont there are some really beautiful places to paint.
Open meadows are plentiful because farmers have kept the land clear. You can see for miles and miles.
Chickens, 6x8 oil
Meadowood Farm is a lovely place on the upper slopes of West Mountain in Shaftsbury, Vermont
Jane Ramsey and I were invited by Cliff and Donna the owners of Meadowood to paint on their property.
Not only did they invite us to paint, but they insisted that we also come for breakfast.
They operate an elegant Bed & Breakfast inn at the farm.
We arrived at the house and were treated like royalty.
Jane immediately started sketching our breakfast.
It was a 5 star breakfast cooked to order! It was so perfect and delicious it felt like a dream... we had to keep pinching ourselves.
After breakfast we were ready to paint ! The hen house seemed like a good place to start. The chickens were lively and friendly.
I made a large variety of sketches.
The chickens never stopped moving; running around eating bugs and little things in the grass.
We tried to gather them in one place so we could paint them. Ha ! Ever hear of "herding chickens" ?
Jane and I set up near the fence to paint them in the yard.
They promptly took off, jumping the fence and running all over the lawns and woods.
Jane had some crackers in the car... so we tossed them bits... to tempt them to come back.
Some of them stuck around long enough for us to sketch and paint them.
We were working fast... it's difficult to paint chickens-in-motion.
I finally knew what "herding chickens" really means !
Chickens Too, 6x8 oil
Soon Cliff came by with his bucket loader to carry our gear to our next painting location.
Jane and I walked down the stairs to the large open meadow below the house.
This farm is pristine. It has everything, a babbling brook, acres of hardwoods, open meadows and a river.
Cliff drove through the woods on a road he built down to the meadow.
It was a perfect late summer day in Vermont... the Green Mountains were dusty blue in the distance.
For the past two weeks Vermont had a ton of rain. Flooding was everywhere. Why was this meadow so perfect ? Cliff had built a berm at the top of the meadow where the river curved and he managed to keep it from flooding the meadow.
Is this man amazing or what ? The farm is a reflection of his care for the land...not to mention how thoughtful and kind he and his wife were towards us.
Jane painted quickly with her watercolors.
The shadows steadily crept across the meadow.
We decided to call it a wrap. We were expected back at base camp, Taradin, for an art opening that evening.
We packed our gear and Cliff drove it up the hill delivering it to our cars.
The meadow was now all in shadow.
The tops of the trees caught the last rays of the setting sun. It was the end of another perfect day on West Mountain in Vermont.
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