Fair Oaks Residency- Day Two

Artist in Residence Project Paintings

Field One Palms

8x10 inches

oil on canvas

Fair Oaks Big Pond

Notes From My Residency Journal

Today was a bit warmer than yesterday but still quite cool in early morning and as the sun went down. I enjoyed today so much. I started out with breakfast at Pearl Country Store in Micanopy. I don't know of any other breakfast place in this area. It is good. Their BBQ is the specialty there and it is very tasty.

When I got back from breakfast, my canine friend Shane was ready for a golf cart ride. We headed out to take several reference photos and to explore around the fields a bit. He likes to spend time with me when his Daddy is away but when Daddy is home, I am chopped liver. 

I have a deadline looming to get started on a 40x60 painting. I needed to do a small scale version to show my clients, so I settled in to the studio upstairs for a working session today. No time for goofing off. I set my Pandora radio on Louis Armstrong and got busy. I finished the small sample painting and the above painting which I started yesterday. I am still working on the Serenity Oak painting which I started about a month ago. I'll see about making some progress on it this week.

I so love working upstairs in the old house's studio. It wraps its arms around me with it's cozy atmosphere. I can look out the window to see the old smokehouse and the pond in the distance. The lovely old wood floors creak as I move around, and the rich smell of the oil paints take me on a journey back through all of the years I have painted in old studios. This is a wonderful life at Fair Oaks. It is my muse. I feel so grateful to have found it at this time of my life, when I am mature enough to understand its priceless value. There are some good things about being an old train wreck..