It’s Garden Week here in Virginia and my plein aire friend, Daphne, was invited by her former middle school art teacher (he’s now a curator of an art gallery), to come paint some of the featured homes on the tour at Fort Monroe in Hampton. I hope the viewer gets the feeling of warmth from the sun over the brick front porch and front wall and the interesting shadows cast by the massive columns across the front of the house.

We arrived about 10 a.m. and the sun was lovely and bright and after looking around a bit, we settled on the front porch area of Oder House. You can’t tell from this painting, but there was a long, steady line of patrons and we got lots of interesting comments and questions from those waiting to get in .

My painting goal for the day was to put down a brush stoke and leave it and not mess around with blending on the surface. I was also trying out a new surface to me: gessoed Masonite. I rather like it.