Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Niles Train Depot Museum, March 1st 2012

This was a new site for us and proved a good choice with plenty of buildings and a backdrop of rolling hills.

Laurie Barna


Leslie Grimm


 Niles is one of those charming old towns, with homes from the Victorian era and turn of the twentieth century, plus a quaint downtown that has managed to survive amidst the sprawl fueled by high tech. From miles away you can spot the name of the town on the steep California mountains that flank the town. When we arrived there were cattle grazing near the white "Niles"  and I marveled at their ability to navigate their huge bodies over treacherous inclines. Mary Paquet



After rain cancelled the first Niles date, we got back on track a week later with an absolutely perfect Spring day for painting and a great location with a wonderful choice of subjects:  rolling stock; the old, restored freight depot and passenger station; the quaint downtown main street; a steep hillside with obliging cattle (they appear to be stationary and happy to pose for us but they aren't really - they just move really slowly - sneaky animals).   I took another shot at practicing perspective with OK results.    One thing I'm learning is that choosing the site from which to paint complex structures is important as it's all too easy to get started and then discover a roof line or adjacent walls are aligned in such a way that things look not quite right. Brad Santos
 

Jenny Tero 
 Niles is a charming little town almost from a bygone era, with a particularly attractive railway station and bright red train. Maybe this cart was designed to match.  I loved the old fashioned luggage and milk churn. 




This paint site was a joy to be at - lots of challenging views to paint and the company was wonderful too. What a great bunch of people we have in this group. Sylvia Waddell