We had a great morning painting at Whim Plantation today! With so many painting subjects there... the greathouse, the cookhouse and museum store, the sugar mill and factory ruins... it's always hard to decide on just one, but everyone managed to produce some fine artwork! One special memory from this morning's painting time will be the lovely classical piano music that wafted out to us from within the greathouse where the pianist was practicing his art. 
"Here a Palletteer, there a Palletteer, everywhere a Palletteer! " That's what it's starting to feel like this winter when I do a mid-morning check of our group. It's been a great winter, with lots of old and new members showing up to paint each Friday. Van and Kitsy Wood's home in Estate Cane Bay was perfect for us because there was plenty of parking, many choices for interesting and varied subject matter, spacious enough for us to spread out, and ample shade too. We all could easily see why this home was recently on the Landmarks Society house tour. 
Southgate is a great place to paint because it has something for everyone: a sugarmill, watermill and other ruins laid out on manicured grounds, amidst lovely plantings, and the architecture of the condos themselves. The wind presented a small problem to those with lighter materials as it produced some surfing of paper and paint pallettes during the morning's session. However the temperature was perfect, the air pristine, and the sky gorgeous... another wonderful St. Croix morning. As you can tell from the photos of our artwork, it all enticed our creativity (one Palletteer produced 5 artworks!). Fifteen of us reconvened for lunch and talk afterwards at the Deep End restaurant.
