Saturday Plein Air - Rock Mill

Fantastic painting day! Weather was bright, clear and cool. I even had cold toes and fingers, and had to wear gloves for a couple hours! Ahhh,,,, FALL. We painted near Lithopolis Ohio at the Rock Mill on the head waters of the Hocking River. This is a great grist mill that has been in the process of being restored for several years. Dave Fey, of the Fairfield County Park District has been spearheading the restoration. Dave was very gracious to us today and gave us a wonderful history lesson.

Lisa Schorr and Dave Fey

Dave is letting us have an exhibit and reception inside the mill in October (details to be finalized) of today's paintings, and then he will be arranging for a larger venue for a longer exhibit period in one of the county's public buildings.

Most of the group arrived about 8:30 and we got to work. I think we ended up with about 22 artists today, and this was about a 50 minute drive from home. Everyone said it was definitely worth the drive! 

I decided to walk down in the gorge and paint the view of the wheel, mill, covered bridge and the waterfall! Yes, quite a complex scene. I got a bit lost a few times, working out the rocks, but I think the painting turned out pretty nice. I still want to do a few tweaks before it gets framed and delivered for the exhibit. 

9x12", pastel on Pastelmat paper

It's been a long day and after going through my pictures, I couldn't seem to cull them much, so I will post quite a few here so you can see the whole area.

I had given my paper a wash of gouache at home to make a interesting underpainting.

 Here, I have started to draw in some of the structure with a hard pastel