At Saint-Gaudens

         Yesterday, several of us gathered at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire to be extras in the filming of a documentary on the Cornish Art Colony which was a popular art colony centered in Cornish, New Hampshire from about 1895 through the years of World War I.
       The central figure of the Cornish Colony was Augustus Saint-Gaudens.  He attracted a summer colony of about 100 artists sculptors, writers, designers, and politicians who lived there either full-time or during the summer months.   That grew into a single extended social network. Some were related, some were friends, some were promising students from the Art Students League of New York that Saint-Gaudens had co-founded.  In addition to Saint-Gaudens, actress Ethel Barrymore, painter Maxfield Parrish, dancer Isadora Duncan, sculptor Frederic Remington, American president Woodrow Wilson and many other notables were associated with the colony.  After his death in 1907 the colony slowly dissipated.
       As we were being filmed as Joan Hoffman's plein aire class, artists were working primarily in oil and watercolor.  I decided to draw and the little apple tree just outside the porch was my subject. My drawing below is the tree itself but put in a different setting.  Though the tree at Saint-Gaudens was surrounded by mown lawn backed by a field and woods, I decided to situate it on a knoll with grasses and flowers around it...

"Apple Tree at Saint Gaudens"

soft pencil on gessoed paper - 10 1/2" x 14 1/2"

       I have another apple tree drawing on the work table now--my new fascination is these wonderful, personable trees....