I just returned from a painting trip to Pennsylvania where I had the opportunity to paint a plethora of lovely autumn landscapes. We stayed in a lovely cottage in the little town of Chester Springs, where I lived and raised my family before moving to Florida.
I did a lot of plein air painting while I was there, as the weather cooperated and the autumn scenery was magnificent.
One of the scenes I decided to paint was looking right up the road from our little cottage at a barn at the top of the winding road.
I thought that standing in the driveway was a perfect vantage point to capture the nice curve of the road, while being sheltered from any possible country road traffic. Little did I realize that I was standing under a hickory tree that had weapons of its own to throw at this hapless plein air painter!
If you've never seen the nuts of a hickory tree, I can tell you that they are mammoth! Before even getting started on the painting, I took a tumble on the gravel as my foot turned over from one of these nuts that were the size of baseballs. Not to be deterred, I set up under the tree anyway. But that was not the end of the tree's revenge on me. It kept spewing nuts on my head as I tried to paint the scene!
After a couple welts, I decided I was not going to be target practice for the tree anymore. So I gave up, packed up all my gear and headed back into the cottage.
Happily, I could still see the scene from the kitchen window, and so I finished the painting indoors.
If anyone had told me that hickory trees could be a hazard to a plein air painter, I would have laughed!
Not any more. I do think plein air painting could be listed as one of the top ten most hazardous activites that people can do!
Thanks for reading and please feel free to contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com of you would like purchase info on this painting.
