Painting at Lavender by the Bay

Yesterday my plein air group met at Lavender By the Bay in East Marion on the north fork of Long Island. Several of the artists had painted there before and I got mixed stories about how they liked it. I arrived at 9:30 am and fell in love with the views.

I usually paint sitting down, but a friend told me that it is hard to sit down and paint the lavender because you miss all the contours of the bushes and the shading of the rows because all you will see is the one big plant in front of you. So I took my easel which has been sitting unused lately. I set it up so it was flat and about waist high. I put a large piece of gaterboard on the easel and used that as my work surface. I was able to put my paper on the left, and my palette and brushes on the side. Here is the first view I painted across the field. This is 8 x 10.

Directly next to the view I was painting was a fenced area containing bee hives. I think they added a bit of interest for this painting. This is 5 x 7.

I forget that standing in one place is exhausing. lol So for the next painting I joined some of the other artists who were stitting under some trees to the right of the field. I sat on top of the picnic table and painted this view looking to the store. This is 5 x 7.

It was still early enough to get one more done. This was done standing by the fence see in the painting above. This is 5 x 7.

By this time it was 3:00 and I had been painting for 5 1/2 hours. lol So I quit painting and did some shopping. The store was wonderful with dried lavender sachets, soaps, fresh lavender, etc. And when the young man at the register wrapped my sachet purchases they were done so pretty that now I don't want to unwrap them. He used bright yellow tissue paper that he stapled at the bottom and then tied at the top with a yellow bow and a tiny sprig of lavender.

Can you tell that I just loved this place?

I forget that standing