Walk with a painter

Ahhh……… autumn! For me, this long awaited season stirs up images, feelings, and memories unlike any other time of year. I hope my opening lines aren’t misleading for, as a born and bred son of Pennsylvania, I truly love all of our four seasons that God presents to us each day in the most magnificent fashion; fall just happens to be my favorite. I know that there are hundreds of spots around the eastern seaboard that claim their vistas are the most spectacular but I’ll settle for the chilly fall evenings and views we experience here in the Laurel Highlands of Westmoreland County. On a good clear day from the southeastern exposure of our house we have a fabulous view of Chestnut Ridge which is approx. 12 miles away as the crow flies. Watching blue clouds forming over that purple ridge with the sound of Canadian geese honking off in the distance totally mesmerizes me and fills me with a sense of wonder and peace still, even though I’ve been looking at this scene for the past 39 years! In one of my previous posts I named several painters which influenced me over the years but, when it came time to paint autumn and winter scenes, John Pike still remains my favorite. I believe his watercolors of fall foliage and deep snow are unmatched to this day and I still pour over his books examining every brush stroke. Hoo, boy, what an artist he was! The title of my painting attached to this post is The Diamond in October which is of the bandstand on the Diamond in Ligonier on a sunny fall day. This is a town that I could easily live and die in. It has incredible historic significance with Fort Ligonier being there, but the town itself is a place that I never get tired of visiting with its many shops, restaurants, and quaint homes. You owe it to yourself to make it a stop while traveling Route 30, The Lincoln Highway. Ligonier is about a half hour drive for us from Greensburg and the trees lining the pristine Loyalhanna Gorge are breathtaking this time of year. Both sides of the gorge stretch three miles alongside the Loyalhanna Creek from Kingston Dam to Longbridge when heading east. We look forward to our next visit!