Haven’t posted in a while – summer got pretty busy. Mid August I went to VT to study with Susan Abbott. Her “Vermont Landscape Painting Retreat” was pretty much Art Boot Camp! Learned a lot, met wonderful people and was wrung out! Each day consisted of lectures and demos, slides and exercises, and lots of plein air painting. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget to mention the wonderful lunches every day!

Susan demonstrating in her garden.

Home base was Susan’s airy studio which she had turned into a class room. We started at 9:00 but could get there early to set up – I shot the photo below before students arrived as once we started there was no time… My work space was on the left with the red cup… Susan has a huge library of art books that were available to us. Here are shelves with her sketchbooks. I do love to see other artist’s sketchbooks.

So much to take in!

We visited gardens and farms, beautiful VT homes, meadows and mountains—each day a visual treat laid out for us to paint.
One of our plein air sites was the home, studio and pond of artist, Adelaide Tyrol. I worked with the group of trees at one end of the pond. We spent two sessions here.

Adelaide’s pond and my painting.

Bob came with me and after dropping me off in the mornings he went off and did train things… He’d pick me up at 5:00, we’d grab a bite to eat and I’d be back at 8:30. After a week of this we headed to Maine for a few days to unwind. That will be my next post!