Mar 22 2009
“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Benjamin Franklin
(Clicking on the linked words in this and future articles opens a new window.)
This quote or similar words has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Today, my wife and I went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC about 40 miles from our home. We are yearly members: we go there about four to six times a year. When you go there, you spend the day, (the cost is about $40+ plus meals) and that includes a good meal. We prefer the buffet of the Deer Park Restaurant , where for $60/2persons, including tip (Sunday Brunch,) you can have a gourmet meal, and perhaps be somewhat a “gourmand.” Weekdays, the cost is somewhat less.
As a part of my planning for the day, I took my camera. Today I wanted not so much to take pictures of scenes to paint, but rather to take pictures of objects to place in my paintings. In a word, to use these and my imagination to create scenes, much as the writer uses very descriptive words in way that can boggle and joggle the imagination, so that you see what he sees in his mind.
Spring is just beginning here in the mountains of western North Carolina, and flowers are being displayed, as well as some trees blooming in full – dogwood, cherry trees, and Bradford pears (non-fruit-bearing – but the tree is shaped like a pear as it grows.) Below is one of the pictures I took – (cropped to show only the item of interest.) Well, future sketches and paintings should show if my planning worked. Future articles in this series will show both an un-cropped photo, and the cropped photo and an explanation of why I took it and other considerations in my mind at the time. Below is a cropped image of a little blond girl whose parents allowed me to take her picture. Reason for picture: the lighting, the hair color (lights and darks within the hair) and the challenge that I spoke of in a previous article. This will probably be the inspiration for the article on portrait painting, my step-by-step. The preparation for that article will take some time.
Fig. 1. Little girl
