Afternoon at Olana

Olana, the estate/home/studio of one of the main founders of the Hudson River School of Art - Frederick Church, is one of my favorite places to go any time of the year. The Persian/Italianate architecture and the view of the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River are one of the BEST in the area.

Larry and I packed a light dinner, a bottle of wine, and our art supplies and cameras, and headed up for a late afternoon into early evening art-a-thon.

It was splendid. I met the buyer for the gift shop (and one of the MOST delectable gift shops in a state historic site thus far...) and she wants to see my cards, and it is the PERFECT venue for my work. I don't like to have many wholesale accounts, but I consider it an honor if they will buy my cards. It is a sacred place, and I would so love to sell my work there.

I had planned on doing some watercolors, but as I pulled out my art stuff I realised that I loaned them to Karen. I only had watercolor crayons in my bag, (Crayon D'Arch?)so my focus and challenge for the afternoon was to learn how to work with these. The two art pieces I did sitting by the back door of Olana.

I took TONS of photos, and will post some of them in the days to follow.

A few families from NY came by and wanted to see my sketches. They were quite enthralled and asked if I had a store. Fortunately I have taken to carrying my business cards with me and handed a few out. I forgot that making art plein air attracts people, and it is a good venue to get seen and you never know WHAT might happen!

Patti