Today I was able to enjoy the first half of a birthday gift that my loving hubby gave me - a day at a Kim Rempel Plien Air Painting Class! Woo-hooo!!
The Good Earth in Beamsville hosts Kim's classes and their grounds are beautiful!! There are so-o-o many lovely little vignettes around the property and their gardens, WOW!! Not only is it a lovely treat to be able to paint anywhere on the property but part way through your day of painting you get to sit down in their refreshing bistro and enjoy a beautiful gourmet lunch and decandent dessert - YUM!! Now anyone who knows me knows there are two things I love: ART and GOOD FOOD!! ~ I tell you these classes were made for me!!
The above photograph is the vignette that I chose to paint at Good Earth today. I have admired that split-rail fence ever since I laid eyes on it at my first-ever plien air painting class back in July 2011 - all silvery in the sunlight and the rhododendrons in full bloom - simply inspiring!!
But I've always been intimidated by layers and layers of green foliage - I love looking at it but painting it is something else altogether! I pondered it for a few moments and then that split-rail fence starting calling out to me so I decided to leap in with both feet, set up my easel and have a go at it!!
This is my painting about an hour in - just before lunch break...
...and by the end of the day it looked like this:
"Nicolette's Garden"
Acrylic on stretched canvas, 16x20"
You can see I took some artistic license in a few areas. In particular I swapped out the background foliage for a blue sky - if I were to paint the same vignette again tomorrow I would do the same thing -
I ♥ blue skies!
A wonderful and inspiring day!! I'm feeling very blessed!!
♥ Cath-
