I donned 1860's period attire two weekends in a row portraying a civilian plein air artist. Last weekend Olivia and I attended the Civil War reenactment at Fort Branch. The weekend before Olivia, my grandson, Christian, and I attended a Living History program at Hammocks Beach State Park. The three of us are pictured above.
Here I am working from my small cigar box pochade box painting an old house on the grounds of Fort Branch near Hamilton, NC. Marsha Harris took this photo of me while I was painting.
Here's the 6x8" finished painting from the sitting. Olivia met some friends and they all played in the old house while I painted it.
I met some nice people as well and had many interesting conversations while painting. One was Tom Whelan, a photographer who was kind enough to share these photos with me. Thanks again Tom!
As I was painting I used the "Complementary Color" technique where I paint the opposite color to what I see in the first stage. The spectators that dropped by while I was working this stage must have scratched their heads and asked themselves, "What kind of drug is this guy on?"
I chose an more intimate setting for my painting on Sunday morning. This 8x10" painting is a view across the field where the battle took place later that afternoon.
At the Hammocks Beach Living History program I portrayed a younger Claude Monet and gave a demo on plein air painting.
In 1863 Monet discovers Manet's painting and paints "en plein air" in the Fontainebleau forest for the first time. My age and impression are closer to Monet as seen in his self portrait painted in 1886 posted here.
The day was full of excitement!
I gave my finished painting to Charlie Wilton who commanded the artillery battery in above photo.
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Two GREAT weekends spent with old and new friends, Olivia, and Christian, topped with plein air painting... PRIMO!
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