"Morning Light, Maple Hill Farm", 10x20, oil, Plein Air Brandywine Valley, Maple Hill Farm, horses, plein air, Winterthur, Children's Beach House, Maryanne Jacobsen art, Wyeth country

SOLD

"Morning Light, Maple Hill Farm", 10x20, oil

I recently returned from a trip to Pennsylvania to paint in the annual Plein Air Brandywine Valley plein air event. For one beautiful autumn week, dozens of excellent painters gather together and have the opportunity to paint at beautiful locations throughout the Brandywine Valley, which is home to the Wyeths and other notables of the Brandywine School of art.

For me, it is a homecoming, because that area was where I lived for the majority of my life.

On one of the days of the event we had multiple choices of wonderful places to paint. I chose Maple Hill Farm , on the outskirts of West Chester, and got there early enough  to find a great location.

There was mist in the fields and everything had a dreamlike quality about it as I set up under a huge tree and surveyed my surroundings.

I had a wonderful audience  as I began my painting, and decided to incorporate a few of the spectators into my painting.

Boy, oh boy! I am not a typical painter of horses and their anatomy, which  is basically  foreign to me. But I endeavored to capture two of them into my painting anyway, as I painted as quickly as I possibly could while they munched contentedly on  the grass.

The reward for getting up at the crack of dawn, heading to an unknown location , and setting up and painting subjects you are not familiar with as quickly as you can is.... a Sale!

I am happy to say that this painting sold during the reception at Winterthur. I never had a chance to get a good photo of it. But I am so grateful for the experience of having painted in that gorgeous meadow, on that brisk October morning, and for the beautiful horses who kept me company as I painted!