What an experience I have been having these past few weeks. For eight weeks, 5 of us have been allowed to walk the special grounds of the Keurner Farm in Chadd's Ford sketching drawing, painting and just taking in the sounds and smells of the farm. For me it will be one of those highlight moments in my painting career. You will always remember those times in your art life when you met a well known artist, won a prize, have a one man art show or was accepted in a well known juried art show. I have been blessed to have had a number of those including meeting Andrew Wyeth myself at the Brandywine Museum or having Carolyn Blish come to our home for dinner and then visit her studio.
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| This is the Kuerner Farm springhouse just off the driveway. |
Well these past few weeks, I have had the privilege to paint on the Kuerner Farm and that will always be one of those unforgettable memories in my painting life. To walk and sit where the best watercolor artist of my day painted...to see the locations and sit there to paint my idea of this location has been awesome. And the other very special aspect is to have Karl Keurner III guide us and help us develop my watercolor skills. He has given me or rather helped push my painting to a new level. His stories of the Keurner farm, his parents and grandparents, the Wyeth connection and learning how the farm was a treasure trove of valuable paintings, sketches and drawing has been .....well incredible.
Here are some photos of my first drawings and painting of the spring house so often painted by Andrew Wyeth as his footsteps took him up the hills and down.
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Here you see my partially completed watercolor of the spring house
taken from the vantage point where I was painting |
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Then here is the finished watercolor still on my easel.
This represents my work from the first evening of painting |
on the farm and the beginning of trying to select from all the 1,000 different possibilities. What a fantastic experience. And thanks to Karl for suggesting that I push myself and try to be more "explosive in my colors" and that helped this watercolor be so dynamic. And thanks to Karl for allowing us the privilege to paint his farm, hear his memories and experience the atmosphere of Andrew Wyeth's footsteps.
