Six of us braved the blustery cold wind on Monday afternoon, 10 August and met at the lower car park in Silvermine West to hike and paint along the River Trail. The normally scenic hike was made even more spectacular by the profuse post-fire blooming of Senecio rigidus which swathed the river valley with luminous yellow.
The aim was not to create meticulous masterpieces, but to set down our impressions in 3 stops of about 20 minutes each. Our first stop was along the river, with all of us finding our little private bubble, and soon we were immersed in our environment and time stood still as we tried to capture the river, a fern or a flower. The second site was high on the hillside, more exposed to the wind but with the breathtaking vista of the eastern mountains. The forest by the waterfall was another place that invited us to stop and paint. Having been immersed in painting, our senses were heightened as we concluded our hike by walking around the dam, and we delighted in the play of light and shade on the water and the surrounding mountains. We concluded with a show and tell, and the variety of the artwork from all of us was amazing. We all enjoyed the meet and decided that meets of this kind need to happen regularly.
It is much harder to paint “en plein air” than at a desk were all your art supplies are displayed in an orderly fashion, and nothing gets blown away or lands in a river. (!) But nothing beats the feeling, nothing fills the soul more than finding a rock to perch on or a niche to settle in, lose yourself a little in the wildness around you and allow your brush to find its own way on the paper, with no judgements on the merit of the outcomes.
