Hambidge Once Again (briefly)

To add to my last post about gratitude, I'll mention my recent time at the Hambidge Center.  I'm grateful to be a Fellow of the Center and to have had residencies there through the years, beginning with my first stay in 1994.  Earlier this fall an opportunity arose to be a fill-in for someone who wasn't able to take a scheduled stay and I jumped at the chance.

The only problem was, as I realized after confirming my stay, the dates overlapped not only Thanksgiving and my birthday a couple of days later, but also an event in town that we were committed to working for!

My solution was to go to Hambidge for a curtailed time and try to squeeze as much work into the opportunity as I could at the beginning and the end of the two weeks.

Here was my studio space on my first night there--a blank slate to begin within:

I wanted to continue my writing project, but also to work on a weaving I've had underway for about a month.  And I wanted to paint a bit each day. 

The weather was glorious for the few days I was there... the bright blue sky of November 27 was as clear and intense as I've ever seen:

I didn't walk as much as I usually do but did get one quick hike in to pass by the stone foundation in the woods:

I loved the contrast of colors in the dried mosses, the stones and the sawbriar leaf.

Almost every day while there I found something from outside to use for a painted study.  I used 140 lb. watercolor paper as the surface and drew first with pencil, then added some color with watercolor pencil, and finished it with watercolor and a little gouache.  Observations like this help me appreciate the details of the world--not that I'll ever plan to make tapestries from these studies.  But I might!

Only three of these were from Hambidge studies--the hickory at the left was from Lillian Smith Center earlier in the fall.  

 Most of my days' time was spent in reading, revising, writing.  All in all, even though my stay was brief, I feel good about the work I was able to do.  Sometimes I really need the away time to chart my path ahead... this was one of those times.