diary of a courageous creator, part three ♡

**barn, mcdaniel farm park, duluth, ga usa**

this one is just for fun!

after our day 1/thursday workshop ended for paint duluth 5, Robin and i drove around the duluth area and scouted out possibilities for beginning our plein air painting adventure. knowing there would be plenty of artists painting in and around the historic downtown area, and also knowing her affinity for the beautiful outdoors, i wanted her to see mcdaniel farm park.

**tenant house, mcdaniel farm park, duluth, ga usa**

the park is a relatively unknown and lovingly kept ‘secret’ in the duluth area, run by gwinnett county parks & recreation. it’s like stepping back in time a bit, a former cotton farm relatively unchanged since its drawing in the 1820 land lottery. in the early 1900s, it was a thriving farm which also housed sharecroppers and was an actively worked property in the mcdaniel family through 1999. today the 134-acre park, granted to gwinnett, retains beautiful trails, the original farm house and barn, well house, chicken coop, blacksmith shed and restored tenant farmer house…and another special building, as you’ll shortly see :)

we took a stroll around and i showed robin some of my favorite spots that weren’t too far off the beaten path for things like, you know, ‘facilities.’ not only is robin a prolific oil, plein air, and wood & paper artist, she and her husband also farm their north florida land with livestock: various chickens, sheep, pigs and lovely great pyrenees dogs. so it was no surprise to me that she was really intrigued with all the large displays of farm implements sprinkled around the farm. we scouted some areas of interest and shot some photos, talked about light and shadow for plein air painting, and went home deciding this would be our day 2 sweet spot.

the next morning it was lovely, but a bit bright. i'll admit to loving the golden, rolling field around the tenant house, so we headed there first to see if we could frame good composition elements for painting. we couldn’t quite seem to find the right place to paint. when we saw several other artists already painting the tenant house, we both eyed the outhouse at the same time with a laugh, and decided that was our first subject. it was a bit hidden in a corner behind the tenant house, under several gigantic trees, had a rustic fence, a path, yellowing grasses and leaves near it. perfect set-up compositionally, if not necessarily saleable subject matter.

robin teaches plein air painting professionally and her teacher-heart was full-on, helping me along with tips and whatever my challenges were that day. she wanted me to experience success, so we planned to only be there maybe an hour or so, just painting the outhouse as a warmup. the light – which I’ve learned is so important when painting en plein air – kept changing, and we kept on, even though shadows were growing and the sky was darkening rapidly. next thing we knew, it was 1:45pm, i was due to broadcast live on location at 2:00 pm inside my private facebook group for creatives… and, in true plein air form, it began to sprinkle, then shower. eep!

fortunately, we had just enough time to box and toss our paintings under the tenant farm back porch, and most of our gear packed up during the ‘sprinkle’ stage. we sprinted for cover under an enormous oak tree, used an easel as a tripod, took a deep breath, and went live within minutes. just before hitting the button, we both looked at each other as we realized where we were … positioned smack in front of that outhouse! barely containing ourselves with laughter, we took full advantage of it, even doing a ‘big reveal’ of what we painted. the interview with robin turned out to be wonderful, even with rushing about, no real prep time, and rain hair. that fun-filled, friday café live broadcast with a whole lot of silliness, laughter, vulnerability, and (very) little serious chat sprinkled in made for some mighty fine courageous creating. it even inspired a little vignette vid for the facebook group. (watch below ⬇︎)

while robin probably has more at stake than i do as a plein air artist, she decided that exercise wasn’t one of her favorites from the weekend. i, however, ended up being pretty pleased with mine, despite the rain and the less-than-serious subject matter. enough so, that i framed and entered that puppy in the paint duluth 5 gallery show where it’s buried very low, on a poorly lit display. ➔

even that makes me laugh when i think about it. i haven’t checked yet, but wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone actually buys it. just because it’s fun. and seriously, who doesn’t need an outhouse painting?

okay, I’ll end this thing (a wee bit) soberly … sometimes, it takes radical courage to be just plain silly – bordering on ridiculous – as a creator in an otherwise traditional, cultured setting. and i love that i’m really, really okay with that because i’ve learned to not take myself too seriously. life is short, and there is lighthearted guffawing to be had!

Just a little ditty created from the October 9, 2020 Friday Café Live broadcast of "Creative Café with Debra Hart Studio,” on location with Robin Popp ...