9x12
Oil on Linen
Plein Air
Sold
Tucked in for the Winter at Heckstall Corner just outside of Windsor are Bobby Leggett's (aka Big Bobby) peanut combine and peanut trailers. Though Big Bobby probably didn't intend to set up a gray day study in value and complimentary colors when he backed these workhorses of the peanut picking season under this old leaning shed, he certainly provided such for artist Fred Saunders and me.
To me the biggest reward of Plein Air painting is becoming one with the subject - Not just visually but actually becoming part of the whole atmosphere that is present at the time of the painting. The weather, temperature, noise, odor, people, etc. etc all become the sum of the final scene on the linen panel - giving the viewer far more than just the visual story.
Yesterday was no exception as we set up on the Heckstall Farm to paint this scene. The Heckstall Farm is owned by the family of Ned Heckstall (aka Heck'n'Stall), and after asking Heck'n'Stall for permission to set up and paint, Fred and I decided on this particular angle with the wheat field in the background. Heck'n'Stall had warned us of some wild dogs that had taken up around his old tenant house, and after a few times of running them off with a few broken oak tree branches, we were honored with the presence of J C Copeland (aka Beetlejuice) and an impromptu art critique. Beetlejuice lives across the road and the unprecedented sight of two artists and their easels was too tempting for the man who eerily looks like the Beetljuice in the movie only with shorter hair, an orange hunting hat, and a twang strikingly similar to Billy Bob Thorton's Slingblade after a few beers. With the noise and diesel smoke of Big Bobby's contract John Deere sprayer heading up the path, Beetlejuice rubbed his chin and after a few investigative grunts pronounced, " Fen, this guy can paint a hell of lot better than you can."
I agreed, and as Beetlejuice walked away I took the opportunity to give a jab back with an attempt at the last word by jokingly telling our new art juror to not drink too many Busch Lights over the weekend. Not to be taken out in the end game, Beetlejuice kept walking and bellowed out, " I won't drink anymore than you will!"
So there you have it. one day in the life of Plein Air painting in Bertie County with Beetlejuice getting the final say.
