THE WINDING ROAD

        THE WINDING ROAD | Pastel |  6x6

It was a gorgeous Kentucky morn, crisp and clean from recent rains.  In September, we were visiting my cousins in Glendale Ky, formerly Walker's Station. A town grew up around my great-great grandfather's store on the railroad line that to this day runs trains through the town right in front of my grandparents lovely vintage home and Pappa's Hardware Store, now an Antique Mall. I love to tell folks how the population of Glendale is only 400 and I'm related to 300 of them!  As an Air Force brat who moved every three years, I adopted my Dad's Glendale as 'my home town' along with Elizabethtown just 12 miles away where Mom was from.  The businesses in the town until faded until, in the mid 1970s, a fabulous Kentucky cook opened a restaurant right on the corner of Main Street by the tracks.  Soon thereafter, lines would begin to form and people were willing to wait hours for a table. Townspeople quickly opened antique & gift stores to keep this captive audience entertained while they waited for some Old Kentucky ham & biscuits with gravy and sweet tea!  In October every year, they hold the Glendale Crossing Festival which gets upwards of 80,000 folks through it on a given Saturday!!  I'm so proud of my home town and delighted in visiting it again on the return of our trip across eastern Canada.

Painting Notes:  I set out painting this with the intention that I would spend some quality time on it as I want to submit it to the Randy Highbee 6x6 show coming in December.  I put in the background underpainting last night, smoothed it in with a PanPastel sponge (great tool!!) and sprayed it with ISO alcohol.  I got so caught up in the excitement of painting it today that I have no idea how long I spent on it - probably an hour and a half, but 1 1/2 hours where I was purely in the zone!  I use the sponge lightly on a couple of parts where my marks were too 'dit-dot' and love how it knocked it back just enough to keep the emphasis on where I want the eye to go.