Mini Residency At Fair Oaks 08/19/12

Trees off Field One

Pond Oak

Holy Ground Field

Notes From My Residency Journal

I enjoyed a pleasant morning at Fair Oaks, first sharing a great cup of coffee and chatting with Rick and his Fair Oaks staff and then off in the woods just off field one. I chose a simple scene of trees along the path. Loving trees, I am always drawn to them. It surprises me how much visitors to my loft studio enjoy the simple paintings of trees that I do. They are not as exotic as the coastal paintings I do, but they have the quiet beauty of the woods I grew up in.

As I heard the lunch bell ring it began to rain so my gear got wet, but will dry out. Luckily, My painting made it safe and sound to Leroy. We had two kinds of quiche for lunch, collard/sausage/cheddar and swiss/ham/bacon.  I like to bake, but am not supposed to eat a lot of what I bake, so Rick's office staff and Fair Oaks staff are thankfully willing to be guinea pigs for my baking hobby.

As I walked out after lunch to think about where to paint, the sky opened up again so I packed Leroy up and headed for home.

Here is my Collard Quiche Recipe

4 eggs

2 cups half and half

3 cups shredded  cheddar cheese

4 pre-cooked Maple sausage patties chopped

1/4 onion diced

pinch of dried thyme leaves

1 teaspoon Country Dijon mustard

2 T corn starch mixed with a little half and half to make smooth

salt and pepper

1/2 carrot shredded

1 T butter

1 cup chopped collard greens ( I use frozen )

Saute collards onions and sausage just until wilted. Set aside. Beat eggs with H&H and Cornstarch. Add mustard and seasonings. Line a pie pan with crust and crimp the edges. Mix sausage collards mixture and shredded cheese, filling the pie crust. Preheat oven to 300. Pour custard mixture over the pie ingredients and make sure the cheese mixture is pushed down into the liquid. Bake on a sheet pan until quiche is golden brown and firm in the middle. Cool on a cake rack and then cut and serve. The quiche freezes well and can be refrigerated and reheated.

Fair Oaks Mini Residency - July 1, 2012

 The fairy houses are placed around the fields.

These are natural fairy houses. I'll be decorating them as time permits.

Golf cart stuck first. Tractor stuck trying to pull it out.

 Big tractor pulling the little tractor out.

Rick in the tractor going back to the barn.

View of Field Three

5x7 inches

acrylic on panel

Notes From my Residency Journal

Today was very interesting and fun for the most part. Not so much for the staff though. Fair Oaks has been very dry for a long time and I have forgotten how to navigate there in the wet season. The recent tropical storm left a lot of water there. The pond has come back and is lovely. I counted several white egrets and a blue heron as I drove by. First on my agenda was going around the fields and placing the little houses I made. I got three settled in their new homes and decided to go back into the woods to place the last one. All was fine until I saw the large tree across the path. I decided I would just skirt around the tree and get back on the path. I often drive all around through the woods so I thought it would be a snap. It wasn't until I got half way around the tree that I noticed I was in ankle deep water. At Fair Oaks, water means sticky mud.  I bogged down and could not get out. I tried to push the cart out but I wasn't strong enough. 

I called the house and the boys promised to rescue me. In a little while Scotty came driving along in a tractor. As he backed in he got stuck too. Off he went to get a bigger tractor. He pulled out the first tractor but could not get in a good spot to pull the golf cart out. We gave up temporarily and headed to the house for lunch. Will made a shrimp sausage rice stew that was delicious. I made a coconut crusted cheesecake for dessert, so we ate well at least. Of course I had to endure many jokes about my driving ability.

After lunch, Rick helped the boys to push the cart out of the mud. I promised to be careful and not get stuck again. Famous last words. I stopped for a little while to do a little painting and then decided that I'd  move to another location.  I skirted the edge  a plowed field carefully.It seemed high and fairly solid. I got so close to the lane where I would have been safe and boom, there I was, buried in mud again. Rick and the boys were very busy, so I carried my supplies back to my truck, left a note apologizing and left for home. I was so frustrated with myself for being so dumb, not once, but twice.

 I'm sure they would like to hang me with onions and shoot me for stinkin!!

A Complete Success-The new Smyrna Residency

My New Smyrna Residency

I just returned from my first 2012 residency with Mary Jane Volkmann. She will tell you her own story. Thanks so much to Louann Hall who made this all possible. She gave us the keys to her vacation home in New Smyrna and wished us a happy stay. I am so grateful to her for her generous hospitality and for her very fine home. We were very comfortable there. It was convenient to all parts of the city. We enjoyed dinner out at the Garlic Restaurant one night dining alfresco on the patio which was filled with tiny lights and lush tropical plantings. What a treat. We also enjoyed an evening at the famous Stavros Pizza where we indulged ourselves with Greek salads and spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread. We packed a lunch each day for our many adventures into the wilds of Canaveral Seashore, Merritt Island National Wild Life Preserve, Spruce Creek Preserve , a lovely park north of New Smyrna, and the famous Ormond Beach Loop. We packed many miles into our four day residency from one end of Volusia County to the other. Each night we stretched our muscles with a walk around the neighborhood, oohing and ahhing over the charming vintage homes. New Smyrna Beach is a lovely graceful city, retaining all of it’s charming architecture  from the past.

I will be posting a bit about each place we visited here on the blog, along with many photos and images of the paintings as I complete them. I did start an 18x24 inch painting of the Merritt Island preserve and will finish it shortly to show you here and on my web site soon.

Linda on the Ormond Beach Loop

Sorry, I can't make this photo of Mary Jane and me rotate.

Our house for the week

More to Come.....

Linda Blondheim