Cooling Off on the Parkway

While my son's family was here this week, we spent a day exploring the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway in Northwestern North Carolina. It is a scenic drive through the mountains, with lots of scenic overlooks and hiking trails.

One of the stops in Doughton Park is Brinegar's cabin.  I had not been there in years.  It happened that the cabin was in the process of getting a new cedar shake roof.  They were actually cutting the shingles from a pile of cedar.

The drone came along for the ride, and my husband sent it off to explore the mountains at several stops along the way.  

We had a line of storms come over the mountains and have had some spectacular rains during our week up here.  But mostly it has been beautiful and delightfully cool.  Temperature forecast today:  79.  In Raleigh:  90.  Much better!

Watercolor Painting Class

Last night I attended a two hour watercolor painting class by Art Student Academy in downtown Wake Forest at the Wake Forest Frame Shop. 


Photo by M. Theresa Brown


Art Student Academy is a husband-wife artist team with a variety of class formats and locations.  Last night's class was taught by Stephen Filarsky, but Theresa also joined us during the workshop.  Our topic was Fall Color in Watercolor.

Our subject was the Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway, winding around Grandfather Mountain.  We had color photo references, and started with a black and white photocopy that we transferred on to watercolor paper.  All supplies are furnished at the workshop, including brushes, paint, palettes, even water containers.



Only three of the ten of us in the class had ever tried painting with watercolors before, but every student finished a painting by the end of the two-hour class! 


Photo by M. Theresa Brown


Theresa took a photo of each participant.  Here I am with mine- complete with a charcoal smudge or two on my face.  I want to work on the bridge a bit, but I was pleased with my sky and some of the foliage.  Hmm, my evergreen trees seem to be bending in the wind.  Probably true on mile-high Grandfather Mountain!

I even liked the little abstract that emerged on the small paper that we used to try out the paints.  This might become a background for a future collage or journal page.

The session was very relaxed and friendly.  I am sure I will sign up for more classes.  The cost is only $30.00 for a two-hour class.  They offer instruction in acrylics and oils as well as watercolors.  There is even a class called Art + Wine that they teach in the Twisted Vine wine shop in Wake Forest.  That one sounds like me!

Mountain Beauty

I am back from a practically perfect mountain weekend with my family.  We drove up on Thursday night and arrived in a torrential storm in the darkness.  What a treat to wake up Friday morning to glorious sunshine and beautiful fall color!

Charlie and I went to town for groceries via the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Incredible vistas!

We have been stopping each week at this farm below Mount Jefferson to photograph the changing fall colors.  Wow!

Then we had to take a Gator ride up our own mountain.  Double wow!

Our kids arrived later on Friday.  We drove back down the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday to visit the Trading Post in Glendale Springs. Here are Lily and Emily by the incredible flower boxes on the front porch.

The quilts lend an authentic mountain craftsmanship feel.

The aprons made a colorful display.

Here is some jewelry and another quilt on display.

The beaded glassware looked beautiful shining next to the window.

But the real shining jewels were the colorful leaves shining in the sunshine on the mountains.

Autumn-Inspired Journal Pages

The last two days have been kind of cold, rainy, and gloomy.  It helps to sit by a window with colorful blooms and foliage to gaze upon.

Although most of the leaves have fallen at our home in the mountains, they are just getting going here.  Hope the sun comes out to shine on them soon!

To counter the gray bleak weather, I got out my Moleskine journal and worked on some autumn pages. 


I really like this spread.  I used acrylic paints in a fall palette and just added mottled splotches all over the page to resemble an autumn forest.  On the right, I pasted in an actual photo of some of the trees bordering the Christmas tree farm that we often ride through at the top of the hill at our mountain place.

I made a transparency on the computer of the same photo, and sewed it on the top and bottom  of the left-side page using hand stitching.  Then I machine-stitched a piece of ribbon on the left edge.  This page now has almost a holographic effect.


Above the photo on the right side, I hand-printed a quotation from John Muir directly on to the painted surface. 

It reads,

     "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. 

     Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. 

     The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,

     while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

So true!

Recently, Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine had a three-part series on journaling by Dawn Sokol.  It was called "Pages in Stages."  She now has a DVD by the same name available from Interweave Press. 

I have been more or less following her techniques.  I will paint the background pages first, then add collage elements such as images and text from magazines and catalogs.  Then, you add journaling text when you feel inspired to write something on that page.  You don't have to go in any special order.  It's really fun to work this way.  I like having some painted backgrounds ready to go when I have some time indoors to play with my pages!  I painted a lot of backgrounds with acrylics, watercolors, and water-soluble crayons at the picnic table at our mountain place.  Lots of inspiration!

I painted this background on October 10, 2010:  10-10-10!

I discovered that I loved this color palette after making this journal spread.  The photo has a bit of glare, probably due to the gloss gel medium I used on the collage elements.  (Note:  the Biltmore paper is a wine label from the Biltmore house vineyard.)

This one has lots of travel brochure information about Grandfather Mountain in Boone, NC.  I wrote some personal memories of the Blue Ridge Parkway. over the images.

On this one, I painted the background with acrylics, images about the Blue Ridge Parkway from a travel brochure, illustrations done with markers, stamping, and lettering on a collaged napkin.

Here are a couple of unfinished pages.

This one has Stages One and Two finished.  The backgrounds are painted with acrylics.  I found this great palette and paintbrush image and the text in a magazine sent to Subaru owners.  Normally that kind of mail goes right into the recycle bin.  Haven't decided what the next step on this one will be.

 

Journal pages are a great place to try out various techniques.  On this one, I used a real oak leaf both as a positive and negative image.  I printed with it on the left, and painted around it on the right. I closed the journal while the paint was still wet, and some of the orange paint colored in the leaf on the right.

Yesterday, my visiting deer reappeared in the same place in the back yard.  I thought I was getting some great pictures with the zoom lens on my husband's camera, but the battery was dying and I got nothing.  By the time I sneaked back around the house with my own little Canon, they were running away.  Can you find the deer in this picture?  (Hint:  our deer are the variety known as "Whitetail.)

His "white flag" is sticking up on the left side of the photo between two tree trunks.  That is often the view we see of deer.  By the time we know they are there, they are running away!



Mountain Therapy, Part Two

At the end of another stressful week, we finally got to our little mountain cabin on Friday night. The next morning, Charlie roused himself out of bed at 5:30 for one of his favorite pastimes, deer-hunting. It is still bow season. He did not see a buck until he was walking back, and one jumped out right in front of him. At least there is one buck on that mountain! After our usual breakfast at Mil's Stop and Shop Cafe, we headed into West Jefferson for some supplies. I had a brilliant idea to stop at Mt. Jefferson State Park. It is one of the largest peaks in Ashe County. Thomas Jefferson and his father surveyed the land along the North Carolina-Virginia border, and owned land here.

Charlie has been hunting in Ashe County for thirty-seven years, and had never been to the top of Mt. Jefferson. What incredible views!

Could you be stressed out in this location? NOT!
I loved it and took dozens of pictures. The trees have really changed color since last weekend.

If you are not able to hike, you can see the view from a drive-up scenic overlook. A short hike will take you to the rocky outcropping where I am standing.

When we finally dragged ourselves off Mt. Jefferson, I took a photo of this working water wheel fountain in a private yard. Very serene!

When we finally got to town, I took a picture of another mural of a fall scene painted on a wall in West Jefferson. Which is real and which is Memorex?This maple tree is across the street from the ABC store. For those not from the south, that is our Alcoholic Beverage Control, or liquor store. Remember we are in the Bible Belt.

When we finished our errands we drove back again on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This split rail fence is very typical along the Parkway. We stopped to buy some Sourdough Bread at the Northwest Trading Post.Can you tell I like those salmon-colored maple trees?

Here is a photo of the New River, snapped as we drove past in the car. This is the river that hosts our Fourth of July tube trip every year.

When we got home, everyone from our family "compound" was in the garden across the street at my brother-in-law's uncle's. It was time for the potato harvest.

Total : 26 bushels of potatoes and one large toad.

After the "taters" were all in the truck, I planted about six dozen more daffodil bulbs along our driveway. Charlie went back to the tree stand for another unsuccessful hunt. I got out my little baby Janome sewing machine and set up a quilting station on a picnic table in our yard. I had lots of six-inch flannel squares to sew together randomly for baby quilts.

Then I closed up quilt shop and headed out with my camera and doggy to capture more pics of our "hood" in the afternoon light.

Trees and sky reflected in the water.Peak Creek upstream.And downstream.I like this snag tree silhouetted in the sunshine over the creek.

I have lots more pictures, so tune in again to ATQ!