Charlene Marsh Studio/Gallery sign

Thanks to everyone who attended the October Open House last weekend!  I was humbled and honored that people came from all over the region and as far away as the Saint Louis area to attend.  I have had additional visitors this month who called and came out at their convenience at other times which is just great.  I love visitors to the Studio/Gallery!  Please call first to make sure you don't waste a trip out here and that I am in the gallery when you arrive.  This is my big, plein air painting season to capture the fall colors so I am likely to be out in the woods at any given time.  I am not a nine to fiver, that's for sure!  I was on the Brown County Back Roads Studio Tour one year but found it very difficult and disruptive to my painting schedule.  I tried to set hours that would still allow me to paint but it didn't really work too well.  I think for the artists and artisans who are at work inside their studios all day, the Studio Tour is just great!  But trying to work outside in the woods and still man the studio/gallery didn't work for me.  

Here is a sneak peek at a new painting, still wet, done at that magical bewitching hour of dusk when the colors have an ethereal glow.  The colors last a very short time before it gets too dark to see.  I'm coming home in the dark with a flashlight!  

"Bewitching Hour in Yellowwood Forest, October 18, 2013", Oil on Panel, 16" x 12", c. Charlene Marsh

Stacking wood on a crisp, windy,  fall day.

The big pile of cut and chopped wood has been staring at me for a week now.  I like to get the wood all stacked and under cover before the winter snows blow and since they were blowing just yesterday, I decided I better get to it.  I worked on the pile for three hours or so and got maybe half of it stacked.  I get a bit obsessive about tasks like this and often work until the job is done with no or minimal breaks.  But I still needed to eat some lunch and get out to paint in the woods so I finally stopped even though the job wasn't completely done.  

Note how green the leaves still are on the trees!  I usually finish the last plein air fall painting around October 28 when the colors peak in a brilliant red  and then a storm blows in and knocks them all down.  But this year, the colors are just getting started!  Comparing this year's color to even last year, we are a good 11-14 days behind! 

Getting started.  You can see the unstacked wood dumped behind the growing stack.  Older wood, already stacked, is under the tarps.

Finished for the day.  Time to go paint!  There is a second stack, about half the length,  shaping up behind this one.

First snowfall of the season!  

This morning started off cold, one of the coldest of the fall season.  Temperatures hovered around forty degrees when I headed back to the barn to feed the ponies and my basil still looks fine so it didn't dip to freezing overnight.  I worked outside around the barn and gardens and woodpile until a cold drizzle turned into a cold rain.  A few minutes ago, I noticed the cold rain had turned to snow!  Too warm to stick but snow nonetheless.  Sometimes big fluffy flakes!  Reminds me of an October snow about twenty years ago when we actually got 8-9" of heavy snow that blanketed the October oranges.  Created very surreal, beautiful colors.  The snow didn't stick around long but long enough I did a lovely painting that was purchased by a close friend. 

First Snow of the Season

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I said goodbye to an old friend.  She was probably 70-80+ years old and had passed away this summer.  "She" was a stately, tall, old hickory tree in my backyard next to the studio/gallery.  She provided shade on hot, summer days and let the sun shine in during the chilly, winter months.  

A large top branch broke off last spring and my arborist advised me of the options.  We decided to wait and see how she did this year.  Early spring, she sprouted green leaves on the trunk with the most hollow pocks, you know ~ the perfect hollows for nests and woodpeckers.  The solid side didn't have any new green leaves.  Over the course of the summer, despite more rain than the past two, the green leaves turned brown and died.  By July, it was clear that the past two years of drought had taken another victim.  

So Matt and Levi came out today and, using climbing gear and ropes and pulleys, brought her down.  First the lateral branches.  Then one large trunk.  Then the last, largest trunk with a few laterals that could not be trimmed.  She came down with a roaring crash and thump that rocked the earth.  An awesome sight to see and hear.  Matt's skills guided the fall so that it narrowly missed my zinnias and bed of peppers.  Not one broken plant!  

Old Hickory will serve one final purpose:  she will heat my house as firewood in the wood stove,  providing the cozy warmth only wood can on cold, snowy, winter days.

Old Hickory before being cut.

Skyline looks a lot different without Old Hickory.

This morning I woke up to deer in the yard eating my flowers.  But I love watching them and cannot chase them off.  Two bucks and two does.  From the points on their antlers, the boys appeared to be three and four years old.

This guy seems to know I am "shooting" him.

Today I went to the Minnetrista Center in Muncie, Indiana to see the exhibition, Open Spaces:  Art About the Land, where I have two paintings on display.  I also needed to pick up a painting that I need to use as reference for a large commission project I am doing as a result of the Port Clinton Art Festival in August.  The client loves the colors in that painting and I want it in the studio for "influence" while I work on the commission. 

The exhibit was beautifully hung.  They always do a great job there.  

"Blizzard Snow in Yellowwood Forest", oil, 18" x 24", (c) Charlene Marsh

The quality of the work overall was mixed.  Some work was outstanding while other pieces leave one scratching their head, "How did that make the cut?"  They have a professional category and an avocational category and all the work is hung, mixed in together.  Nevertheless, it was easy for the trained eye to tell the amateur work from the professional pieces.  I suppose they are trying to be inclusive and encouraging to avocational creators.  

I enjoyed seeing the show and the wide variety of work and mediums on display.  I checked out another exhibit in a nearby hall where pieces from the Minnetrista Heritage Collection were on exhibit. Beautiful historic displays about the history of Muncie and the Ball Family legacy are on permanent display.

Minnetrista Center, Muncie, Indiana 

Gazebo in the Rose Garden at the Minnetrista

Last night I was late heading out on my evening walk in the woods.  A friend going back several decades had called out of the blue and we talked until twilight.  I grabbed a flashlight to take with me since it was already starting to get quite dark out and followed the creek up into the woods about one mile and then turned around and headed home.  Twilight had turned to pitch black dark without even a little moonlight to help light the way.   And deep in the woods with a heavy leaf cover, there was not even any starlight to brighten the way.  But I had my flashlight and could sufficiently navigate the trail even in the dark.  Although, I noticed that when I turned off my flashlight, I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face.  I got back to the gate at the top of the hill at the back of my property and waited for my fourteen year old dog, Teddie, to catch up.  I usually hear him chugging and puffing as he approaches and scales the hill.  My eight year old pit/rott mix had already arrived and gotten her treat at the gate and we both sat waiting for Teddie.  I sat on my "thinking rock" and let my mind drift.  

But the minutes grew longer and longer and I realized I didn't hear Teddie and he should have been there by now.  Last I had seen him was when I turned around by the creek and headed home.  He was right behind me.  But now he had vanished.  I called and listened and called again.  I headed down the hill and followed the creek all the way back in the pitch black night, calling and stopping to listen for him.  I got all the way back to the place where three large trees had fallen over a couple of weeks ago, where I had last seen Teddie.  But no sign of him.  Concern grew to panic and fear.  Thoughts raced through my mind about what had happened.  Maybe he had a heart attack and was dead somewhere in the woods.  Maybe coyotes got him even though I hadn't heard anything to indicate that.  Still, the thoughts tumbled out, trying to figure out where the old boy could be.  

On my way back, retracing the trail, my pit/rott was sitting in the middle of the trail about halfway back.  And I asked her, "Where's Teddie?  Help me find Teddie" and she immediately became extremely animated and ran up the trail a short ways and stopped and looked toward the creek, down the embankment.  So I dropped off the trail, down the embankment, towards the creek.  A little scary to leave the trail because even with a flashlight it would be very easy to get hopelessly twisted and tangled and lost in the woods.  But I had to find my boy!  I could not leave him out in the woods, alone, all night!  Much to my relief, with his sister's help, I found him down there in the creek, hopelessly lost in the dark.  I think the poor old boy, with his aging eyesight, must have had trouble finding his way in the dark and got lost from the trail. I clipped on his leash and got him back on the trail and back home.  I was so relieved to have everyone safely back home.  It was close to 10 p.m. before we got back inside and I fed them their dinner. 

Teddie, asleep and safe at home.