Dinner at Noreens 4 '10

This evening Noreen Sneed invited Nancy and Harry Susla and Bruce and I to dinner.  I don't know what I enjoyed more... Noreen's cooking, or the company before and after dinner. 
Thank you, Noreen,  for a wonderful evening.

BJ rescues Sea Stars 4'10

Bruce spent the morning saving sea stars that had become stranded onshore at Pawleys Island by the quickly retreating tide. He's such a nature lover!

Brookgreen Gardens Artist Date 4 '10

Thursday I went to  Brookgreen Gardens to grab some spring reference photos for the series I am doing of their Botanical Gardens.

I thought I would get there early when the light was casting long shadows.  Unfortunately the Gardens do not open to the public until 9:30 am, which is about an two hours later than I would have liked to start. Even worse when I got there, I found busloads of school kids on a field trip.  I spent a lot more time than I would have liked waiting for a scene to be free of munchkins, but at least I got a few laughs while I was waiting.

For example    I had to wonder if this sculptured bear was trying to hide behind the azaleas from the hordes of mini-Tarzans who were climbing all over the sculptures in the children's garden.

These pair of noble beasts looked a little disgusted at being seated amidst all those pretty flowers.  They seemed to be thinking , " Hmmmmph.  The least the staff could have done is plant tropical plants around the King of Beasts!"

Speaking of Beasts... I call this shot Beauty and the Beast.

Just so you can gauge the size of this alligator, I've included a photo with the enormous statue and a human to compare with the alligator.

RVing at Cheraw 4 '10

We took a 100 mile weekend trip in the RV trip to Cheraw State Park.  The park is named after the nearby berg of Cheraw.  From the colonial to the civil war, Cheraw was a thriving  and prosperous tobacco farming community.  It is also is the intra-state sister city to Georgetown SC.  After Sherman had razed Charleston, Georgetown sc ( which is 50 miles north of Charlseton on the coast ( and ten miles south of us)) figured it was next to be burned; so it sent all its public records to Cheraw, SC  for safekeeping (you know-- land deeds and property titles, marriage, death and, birth records,  etc.)  Sure enough Sherman bypassed Georgetown, headed west to Columbia, SC then went north to burn Cheraw to the ground.  After the civil war, many white landowners returned to Georgetown to find their homes and land occupied by blacks and ner’- do-well whites.  The former owners had no way to evict the squatters because they couldn’t prove they ever owned the property in the first place.

We didn’t spend much time in the town of Cheraw.  For one thing,  we arrived on a Sunday, and like most Southern cities, half the businesses close their doors on Sunday.  Then too the half that might have stayed open were closed down and abandoned.  Most small southern towns were dependent upon fishing, or agriculture, or manufacturing.  When manufacturing moved out of the US, there was little for non-farmer or fishermen to do but pack up and move  out of state to find work.  It’s kinda  sad going through once proud  old  towns with their sagging-porches, and empty paint-peeling mansions.

Our real destination in the area was Cheraw State Park.  The park surrounds a lake.   The northern side is fully developed with public recreational facilities including an 18 hole golf course.  The first order of business  for Bruce, after arriving at Cheraw State Park,  was a round of eighteen holes of golf. It's hard to imagine a more beautiful place to golf. The course is laid out in a long needle pine forest. Most of the fairways overlook Lake Cheraw. There are no houses along the greens, and what buildings there are, are designed to look like log cabins. It was easy to imagine that we were in a meadow in the forest.


 

The serenity of the setting seemed to help Bruce's game.

He played well on almost every hole.

 
 Cheraw is a very big lake.  The eastern end of it is bound by a man-made dam with a bridge over it that allows one to walk across from the camp ground on the south shore to the public recreation facilities of north shore.  The western end is a Pond Cypress  Tree swamp. On Monday morning, BJ and I rented a double sit-upon kayak for a paddle through the western portion of the lake.

The thing is Bruce only brought one pair of pants for camping … everything else he packed was country club attire for golf.  When we got to the kayak rental office, we found that all they had available were sit-a-top self bailers, which meant he would be sitting in water and wearing wet clothes for the rest of the day.    A 300 lb female state park ranger lumbered out of the ranger’s office and rode a golf cart the 30 meters down to the kayak equipment shack to issue us our gear.  She didn’t have a clue what she was doing, and didn’t know a thing about how to assemble the gear.  (She actually gave Bruce a child’s life jacket to wear.)   Now Bruce is not known for his anger management skills and he completely lost it.  Even though the kayaking had been my main planned objective for the trip, I almost canceled the entire exercise.   I can deal with the ideas of paddling through a swamp filled with alligators, cotton mouth snake, and protective nesting osprey, but having BJ behind me in a boat when he was throwing a tantrum… that is scary!

Eventually he calmed down and we were off.    It was worth it.

The swamp is magical... almost mystical in nature. 

The reflections were incredible. 
 

There were even carnivorous pitcher plants clinging to the base of the cypress knees.  (By the way carnivorous plants also grow near where I live in South Carolina.  Who would have thought I would find something so exotic growing in my own back yard?)

That afternoon the adventure continued.   Arriving back at the RV after the kayak, BJ shed his wet jeans and t shirt for his fancy (but dry) golf attire.

 Kat was happy to see us and greeted us  at the door.

   I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day sitting around, so we decided to take a hike down a graded dirt logging road that leads through the southern side of the state forest.   We were about four miles in from nowhere in these very isolated woods when we see  a  heavily muscled black male, in full fatigue gear,  with a loaded backpack, jogging towards us carrying two 5 gallon (obviously full) gasoline tanks ( one in each hand).  The guy was huge… he looked like a cross between Hulk Hogan and a character out of “Deliverance.”   (And here’s Bruce in his country club attire looking like Billy Crystal, in “City Slickers”).  The ‘soldier’ explained was preparing for a military operation (para-military no doubt.) He said that he’d just come from his bivouac camp and he’d catch up with us on the way back (Gulp… time to find a different route home).  In retrospect the whole interaction was very funny.  After all, we go camping rather than staying at resort hotels because we want to experience a wider view of society, and it certainly did make for some good stories to tell our neighbors later that week. 

Georgetown Watercolor Society Meeting 4/2010

The Georgetown Watercolor Society met this month at the St Mary's Catholic Church in Georgetown.  One of the best things about belonging to art organizations is the incredible amount of support the artist give one another.   Here our President, Janice Coward is seen presenting a lifetime membership to Lib Ferdon in honor of her unending efforts in promoting the arts in Georgetown SC.

Litchfield Plantation 4 '10

A client took me to Litchfield Plantation on Friday to discuss a commissioned work.  Her daughter will be married under the magnificent oaks of the plantation, and she wants me to capture the setting for her. Talk about fairytale weddings!  This place is the epitome of  the Southern Plantation era.  I took several photos while the azaleas are at their peak of bloom.   Isn't it beautiful?

Hobcaw Barony 4 '10

Hobcaw Barony  is a non-profit  wildlife refuge, aka Belle Baruch Foundation. Made as a royal land grant in 1718, it was eventually subdivided into 14 individual plantations. It became the winter residence of Wall Street millionaire and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch. Mr. Baruch's daughter, Belle, purchased all of the barony over a period of several years and at her death a foundation was created to use the land for the "purposes of teaching and/or research in forestry, marine biology, and the care and propagation of wildlife, flora and fauna" in the state of South Carolina.  The property , composed of low country  pine and maritime forest, and tidal marshlands, juts out into and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and Winyah Bay.  Access to the Barony's  17500 acres  is by guided tour only, and I have visited it several times  to kayak and bird-watch.  I wish the Foundation would sponsor a plein air painters or photographers day;  they don't, but I do have several great photos I've taken on the tours I have attended.

( Below photo of fire lookout tower) 

Given its immense acreage, and its geographical isolation, the marshlands here have a surreal quality about them.  The sky is huge  and other than the handful of people in my party there is almost no evidence of human. I always feel small.  It feels comforting to be reminded that nature has her own agenda and in many ways it is much more sublime than the plans of man.   I tried to capture that emotion this week with a couple of paintings of  the marsh at Hobcaw.  I included a human element in both just to give perspective to the scene, but in both cases, I tried to emphasize the grandeur of the place with its immense skies and endless empty horizons.

 Below:  Boat landing

The Sea Coast Artist Guild: Betsy McDonald Demo 4 '10

The Sea Coast Artist Guild met on Sunday April 11th,   Our guest demonstrator was Betsy McDonald.

Betsy uses only three colors of  Grumbacher's water soluble oil paints: cadmium yellow light, alizarin crimson, and cobalt blue, plus white and black to create her paintings.  She does not use any thinner other than linseed oil.

She also paints incredibly fast.   Above she is about one half hour into the process.

Below shows one hour from the start .

Above:  First Betsy scrubs in all of the colors,

then ( below) she goes back and adjusts colors and values.

Below, Betsy has taken the piece as far as she can in one day (actually one and a half hours).

She will let it dry overnight, then add highlights the next morning.

Below: our board members are holding  up one of Betsy's  finished paintings for us to see.

Litchfield Plantation 4 '09

 My neighbor,  Julie D'Amore and I had lunch at  Litchfield Plantation today.

Rice Field on the River

 It is an honest to god intact rice plantation

Abandoned Rice Field  complete with the shell tabby water silo, and master’s house overlooking the rice fields. 

 The place is amazing. I have to find a way to sneak past the guards so I can paint   in there.  Everywhere I looked were beautiful scenes.  … It has the largest number of heritage oaks I have seen in any location. 

Litchfield Tree Allee

   The entryway is lined with them and below that are 3 meter high red azaleas in full bloom.  

Retaining Pond

But the oaks don’t stop at the plantation manor.. they extend out in groves on both sides of the house giving the place the feeling of being in an ancient forest. 
 In truth it probably is..  Most  of those trees are two hundred years old +  That is old by east coast USA standards as our forefathers did their best to strip the land of every living tree..    

Brookgreen and Hansa House 4 '10

 After BJ finished wrapping up the last of his work notes on the computer repair job he’d just completed, and clocking out of work today (4 pm), he wanted to go play.But what to do …Golf? A walk on the beach?? a bike ride???     

 We wound up driving to nearby Brookgreen Gardens then walking their entire formal botanical/sculpture gardens and several of the extensive trails through the old rice fields as well.    The Gardens at Brookgreen focus upon Southeastern  NA native plants…..iris and other bulbs,  azalea 3 meters tall,  wisteria, jasmine and honeysuckle vines,  dogwood, crab-apple, redbud, magnolia, tees were all in bloom.  The warm evening air was like perfume.  

  Combined with the lovely colors of the setting sun it was almost magical. 

After that we stopped at a family run oyster house.  Local oysters are available for harvesting in every month that has an ‘R’ in it, so this is the last month we will be able to get any local oysters until next September.  During the summer they ship in Gulf coast oysters from Texas, but I don’t think they taste as good.   We’d intended to just get an appetizer and go home for a supper of shrimp and grits, but after that long walk, we were famished.  We rationalized, “It IS the LAST TIME we’ll have a chance to get local oysters for a long while”; so we wound up eating an entire oyster roast dinner.  Salad, corn, boiled potatoes, and hush puppies (hp s are like  deep-fried sweet cornmeal donut holes)  were the sides that came with the meal.   It was a wonderful meal.  (I inserted  this comment on 5/3/10… “obviously this was written before the gulf  oil platform melt down.  We are being told that the  Gulf of Mexico oysters/shrimp may be oil tainted and unavailable for years, which will probably push the cost of our local SE Atlantic oysters and shrimp out of reach when they come back into season”.)  I hope not. Eating whole pots of roasted local oysters are one of the true joys of living on the East Coast

We got home at about 8pm.  I collapsed into a state of contentment on the couch and watched a PBS documentary on the life of Buddha.  It seemed a perfect way to end a perfect evening.

"The PIT" 4 '10

"The PIT" aka  Pawleys Island Tavern

 falls into that class of "Arrogantly Shabby"  establishments that are so popular in the low country.  Clapboard framed inside and out,  the bar is papered with one dollar bills signed by visitors from all over the world.

Like most local eateries, the food is mostly deep fried  fare.   But it is the hot music from the best local bands  and cold brew make THE PIT a  favorite hangout for locals and visitors alike

Joe D'amore and BJ

Easter week in South Carolina 4 '10

The weather finally warmed up in time for Easter week, and spring is definitely on its way.
  I am so glad spring is truly beautiful here in the South.    

Right now all the magnolia, pear and cherry trees are in bloom, as are the daffodils and other bulbs.   The azaleas are just starting to burst forth.   The air smells like perfume.   It is the one season I do not miss my exotic garden plants in California…. I’m too busy enjoying the flower show here.