8 x 10 inches
Oils on canvasboard
Time: Approx. 1.5 hrs
Even though it's been a bit on the dry side, I really can't complain about the weather this autumn. Big blue skies, crisp air, warm days, cool nights...it's hard to believe that this time last year we had our first substantial snowfall.
This morning, Christine and I went out painting with our Thompson Valley Art League friends at the Osborn Farm in Loveland. It was such an interesting setting, it took us awhile to choose a subject. I thought of doing the barn, but it was still too deep in tree shadows. Ditto for the John Deere tractor. There were a ton of red-winged blackbirds in the cattails around a pond, but I wasn't feeling focused enough to try to capture their frenetic movement. So: when I came across a deceptively simple-looking wagon filled with pumpkins, I decided on that. (Christine took on a more sizable collection of pumpkins in two large wooden crates.)
We'd just gotten in the first brushstrokes when a large group of young children and their parents arrived on the scene. The Osborn Farm, it turns out, is a lot like Lee Martinez Farm in Fort Collins, in that it opens its doors to educate the public on agrarian life. So we soon became surrounded by a sea of curious faces and a barrage of polite questions. "What are you doing?" "What's your name?" "Can I see?" "Oooh, pumpkins!" A couple of times, I had to gently explain to would-be wagon riders that I was painting this particular wagon; would it be okay if it didn't go anywhere for a little while? Eventually they were shuffled away to their tour; afterwards, they all came over again to share what pumpkins and decorative gourds they'd picked from the nearby patch. Just adorable.
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