Autumn is a great time for sketching in western Pennsylvania. Our fall foliage rivals that of New England, and we always enjoy lots of beautiful, clear, sunny days before the dreariness of late November sets in. Would you like to see what I’ve been sketching this fall in our neck of the woods?
My friend Wendy drove up from North Carolina for a visit a few weeks ago, and one day we decided to do a little antiquing. There was a new shop I’d been wanting to check out, and Wendy’s obsession with vintage stuff gave me a great excuse to finally pop by The Dutch House for a visit.
It turned out to be an absolute gem! We spent an hour wandering around inside, finding not only regional items, but also a treasure trove of French antiques that Savanna Christy, the the bubbly and vivacious owner, had picked up on a recent trip to Paris. The outside was decked out for fall with heirloom pumpkins and cornstalks mixed with vintage finds.
It was so cute and charming that we grabbed our sketchbooks, plopped ourselves down on the hillside across the road, and spent the next hour and a half drawing and painting the irresistible scene. If you live anywhere nearby, I encourage you to check out the Dutch House. You’ll love meeting Savanna, and you never know what treasures you might find inside. She adds new items daily to her quirky inventory.
With all that I have going on right now, it’s been hard to make time to go out sketching on my own, but when I commit to an outing with friends, you can bet I’ll be there! Our local sketchers met one day in late September at Ohiopyle State Park near Farmington, PA. It’s Pennsylvania’s most popular park, with over 20,000 acres of mountainous woodland and a spectacular river gorge. We got there early one day and grabbed a perfect spot on the viewing platform directly above the falls.
Some of us sketched the rocks and swirling water…
while others tackled the larger picture of river, trees, and sky.
I’m one of those who finds the big scene hard to resist, so I sketched the river and the far shoreline on a page in a 7.5″ x 7.5″ Stillman and Birn Beta series sketchbook, with the intention of adding a few more sketches throughout the day to create a composite page.
Before we left, I added some fall flowers to the page.
Here’s a shot of everyone’s sketches…
and the smiling ladies who did them!
But the fun didn’t end there. After we wrapped up the painting session we headed to Bittersweet Café in Farmington for a scrumptious lunch. Sitting outside in the sunshine, laughing and talking like we did in the good old days, I could almost forget about how much the world has changed in the past year and a half.
While we waited for our food, I added another sketch to my composite page, drawing the pretty fall centerpiece sitting right in front of me.
There wasn’t time to paint it before my sandwich arrived, but I finished up the painting later at home and added a title and some hand-lettered notes to the page.
Since we had so much fun that day, we decided to return in October and sketch in a different part of the park. This time we went to the Natural Slide area where, in the summertime, kids (and crazy adults!) slide down a natural stone chute filled with rushing water into a pool downstream.
We were there for tamer pursuits, and it was a perfect day for sitting in the sun, sketching, and listening to the sound of water tumbling over the rocks, with golden leaves drifting down around us.
For those two hours, all the frustrations of the pandemic and homebuilding and house selling fell away, and all I thought about was how to capture the look and feel of that day in my sketchbook.
Every time we get together for one of these outings, my friends and I talk about how good it feels to be together. We missed it so much last year. It feeds our souls.
The icing on the cake that day was this beautiful scene that I saw on my way home. A single photo doesn’t do it justice – there was a quarter mile-long stretch of road edged with blazing pin oak trees glowing in the sunshine, planted there for no other reason than to give pleasure to people driving by.
The nights are getting colder now, and winter is on its way. The days of outdoor sketching get-togethers are over for awhile, but we’re determined to come up with some safe alternatives to get us through the winter. We need each other, and we have come to realize what a gift our time together is.
6 Comments
ahh- I agree!! There’s nothing like getting together with friends to go sketching!! I have missed that so very much!!! We’ve just started getting back together again lately…and oh how nice it is!! Hoping the weather holds out for us, so we can get some more time in together before deep cold sets in!
Hi Leslie! Enjoyed reading your blog…I can “hear” you as I read! And your paintings…beautiful, as always…every one! Such talent you have! Miss you!!
Isn’t fall wonderful! Thank you for sharing your artful adventures with us. My dream is to have a local group to something like this someday. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Your beautiful blog posts and emails make me want to grab my supplies and dive in, and sometimes I do! Thank you for sharing your adventures.
These are all so amazingly done — so inviting and beautiful, Leslie!!!! LOVE each of them!
Our day (and whole visit) was so special to me! No better place to be sketching than with my Summerhill bestie! 😘 Love the sketches you completed, and the little pumpkin metal frame with flowers and gourds at Bittersweet Cafe is adorable!