Paint Snow Hill 2009

This was my third year participating in Paint Snow Hill. I suppose I am now a veteran, which means I know all the best places to eat--and THAT is the single most important thing to know when you are painting en plein air. Naturally the primary purpose of Paint Snow Hill is to make a lot of artwork in a very short period of time. But the event comes with a major bonus of making new friends, catching up with old ones, eyeballing everyone's artwork, and eating glorious food, food, food.



My painting setup was a bit more makeshift than usual because half of my art supplies were boxed up for the move. (See my usual guerrilla plein air setup here.) But the back of the car worked well as a mobile art studio. It allowed me to do most of my painting on site. Which is kind of the point of plein air painting.



On Saturday afternoon I painted on Figgs Landing Road near Chincoteague Bay. Here is the finished painting called Figgs Landing, acrylic and china marker on canvas panel, 11" x 14", 2009. And the paint was applied exclusively with painting knives, not brushes. When racing against acrylic's drying time outdoors, knives were the way to go.



As I drove back and forth from Ocean City to Snow Hill each day, I passed a new development near Newark: Acadia Village, 41 New Homes for Sale, Starting in the 200s. As the point of plein air painting is to capture a moment, I zigged toward the idea of the moment and captured the cusp of development as an important moment in the rural areas along the Eastern Shore. This painting is called 41 New Homes, acrylic and china marker on Gessobord, 5" x 7", 2009. Although I framed and showed it, I do not think I am quite finished working on it.



I went the same direction with this painting called Widening, acrylic and china marker on Gessobord, 5" x 7", 2009. I wanted the moment before the four-lane highway arrived at the Town of Snow Hill.



On Friday I parked the car on the north side of the river in front of the Cannery and painted the collective skyline of the Town of Snow Hill. The painting is called Paint the Town, acrylic and china marker on canvas panel, 11" x 14", 2009. If you have been to Snow Hill before you may recognize the some of the skyline shapes, like the Cannery, bridge house, canoe rental building, water tower, Circuit Court, and church spires.



This year I did a little less socializing than usual. I was more focused on where in the world I might go off to paint next than pestering the other artists while they worked. On the left in the floppy white hat is Nancy Thompson who lives in Southern Maryland, not far from where we're moving.



Many of us lined up our work under the pavilion at the Saturday night picnic. I was so glad that the old tradition of show-and-tell among the artists continued because it's my favorite part of the weekend. The weekend culminated with a Wet Paint Show and Sale on Sunday in the old firehouse on Green Street. Thanks, of course, to the hard work and dedication of Ann Coates of Bishop's Stock and to SHARP and to all the volunteers who made this weekend so great!