Paintsites Blog: Ardenwood Historic Farm, Fremont. Thursday, October 8, 2015

We came back to this favorite site to paint pumpkins and more pumpkins (pumpkins are not just for pies you know, they're also wonderful subjects both individually and collectively on the vine). But the big Central Field had been planted in Indian corn instead (part of the normal crop rotation program) and they were harvesting the pumpkins in the adjacent commercial farm faster than we could paint them so determined pumpkin painters had to settle for a field of picked pumpkins in one of those ubiquitous "farm stands" where there's nothing but pumpkins. (For those who made a point of charging their palettes with lots of orange - don't change a thing, next Thursday we'll be painting the Golden Gate Bridge.) Fortunately, there's lots more to paint at Ardenwood so any disappointment at not finding pumpkins still on the vine quickly dissipated and it was on to old trucks, old buildings, farm animals, and the aforementioned Indian corn.
(Note: Ardenwood is hosting their annual Harvest Festival this weekend, Saturday, October 10 - 11. You can help harvest the Indian corn and get to take some home. See the Special Events page on the park website http://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood for details.)

Upcoming Paintsites:

Thursday, October 15, 2015: Baker Beach, San Francisco - the Golden Gate Bridge!
Weekend Paintsite - Saturday, October 17, 2015: Main St., Los Altos - urbanscapes with fall foliage.
Thursday, October 22, 2015: Portola Vineyards, Portola Valley.
Thursday, October 29, 2015: Triton Museum, Santa Clara - paint on the grounds and then a special "open" day in the Community Gallery to see the Members Annual Show.

Ongoing: Not to be missed! Best ever Annual Member Show at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara runs thru November 7th. Open Saturdays and Sundays only (plus Thursday, October 29th).
For details, see the SCVWS website or the October Newsletter.

Candy's painting of the road into the park.

The long line to buy entry tickets. It looks like John, Leslie, Marilyn, Broncha and Candy were near the head of the line. But looks can be deceiving: the two adults in front of them were each buying about 100 tickets for the busloads of excited (I think my hearing has been permanently damaged), but well behaved, school children waiting to get into the park.

Pumpkins:

Kaaren arrived early and started painting the commercial pumpkin farm stand on the road into the park.

Kaaren's pumpkin farm stand painting.

Waiting for the park to open, Candy painted Kaaren painting pumpkins.

Rich hit on the pumpkins and corn theme too - this painting was done in the park.

Farm chores:

On old farms, a woman's work was never done. Here Leslie and Sylvia do artistic homage to them and the the chore of drying the laundry.

Leslie's painting of the wash hung out to dry.

Sylvia's sketch of the drying laundry.

Farm equipment:

You can take an artist to an old farm but you can't make him/her paint anything but an old truck (if there's one nearby) ...

John.

John's unfinished painting of The Old Truck.

Rich painting a different, not quite as old, truck.

Rich's painting of an old, but not the oldest, truck.

Lisha and Broncha.

Lisha's painting of The Old Truck and the Indian corn field.

Broncha's painting of The Old Truck.

Leslie's painting of The Old Truck.

I wasn’t happy with my truck painting - I’d tried painting it without a drawing and the truck didn’t stand out well. So I did some line-work and I like it better. Leslie

Sylvia painting the big sky, the corn field, and the Diablo range.

Sylvia's painting - she couldn't resist including The Old Truck.

Kaaren.

Kaaren, a rebellious spirit, painted a tractor (may be an old one, maybe not), not a truck, which was actually being used for farm duty.

Farm buildings:
There were things other than farm equipment to paint:

Melanie

Melanie's painting of the Cooks's House. This handsome little building currently serves as the feeding station for the farm cats and resident peacocks and peahens. Which offered Melanie the opportunity to make some quick sketches (not shown here) of the animals impatiently waiting for their lunch.

Broncha's painting of the Country Kitchen.

Marilyn's painting of the Gazebo.
My favorite part was when two little girls on a field trip, then three more little girls came by to admire my work. I did my best to encourage them in their own artistic pursuits. Marilyn

Rich's painting of the old windmill powered Tankhouse.

Mary's painting of one of the specialty farm gardens.

Animals:
What would a visit to a farm be without some farm animals?

Jane's painting of the small herd of sheep kept on the farm.

Jane's painting of some goats, one of which (probably the beady eyed one looking directly at her) tried to eat her brush right out of her hand.
Yes, the goat on the right is rather large but she is very pregnant, maybe with twins. Jane.

Corn: Somebody had to paint the Indian corn ....