Old Road in the Woods

Spent the other day at my boyhood home visiting my mom. While my two kids kept her busy, I went out and did a little painting.

It was a bright, clear morning and I was not sure what I wanted to attempt with such harsh lighting and ended up on the old roadbed that marks the southern boundary to the property.

I always knew this old roadbed, played around it for many, many years. But never knew the name of it or any history. So, I just did a quick search for old roads in Warrick Co, IN. and found a 1910 Rural Delivery Map that shows this road and from the best I can tell it was called Robinson Rd. There is a dwelling shown on the map, which approximates a spot I found as a kid playing in the woods of place where a home likely was. A further search of a map from 1936 shows the road no longer there. So, sometime between these dates I would have to assume the road was abandoned.

So, I set up and painted this spot with the old persimmon tree and another dead one with it's debarked limbs all akimbo and hanging down to the ground. 

9"x12" oil on linen panel

 

Painting in the Snow

Over the weekend our area received a nice early winter present and I was finally able to get out today and do a little painting at one of our local parks.

This morning began with a nice dusting of about an inch of snow over what we already had, but the skies were supposed to clear and be sunny the rest of the day. I wanted to get out before any of it started melting, which it has done quite a bit as of now.

I went to Yellow Creek Park on the east side of Owensboro, KY. They had the access road back to the trail head closed, so I parked and walked in the extra 1/2 mile or so to where the trail begins at an old iron bridge. I took some photos there, but wasn't feeling anything, so I went on down the trail. Snapping photos along the way I finally came to a spot I've sketched in watercolor before (and not to happy with the result) and decided to set up and paint it.

The trail here is elevated a little above the bottom land that is right near the creek and winds through some tall trees and over a little bridge before climbing a slight rise and disappearing over a hill. This spot also has ivy growing over everything and up the trunks of the trees.

Below are the photos of my efforts to capture the scene.

 A snowflake that was blown from the tree tops and landed on my canvas

I will need to work on it a bit in the studio and then I will post up the finished work.



 OK, after a little tune up in the studio, here's what I have.

"Snowy Path In The Woods"
9"x12" oil on linen panel