Paint out Stony Creek Thursday, Nov 5

The extended forecast for next Wed and Thurs is in the mid to high 60s.  What great weather!  So we can stay on the coast for one more week.  And the four of us this past Thursday were so enchanted with the variety of fall scenes to paint farther down on Thimble Island Road heading towards Flying Point Rd that I thought it deserved another day.  Of course Stony Creek harbor is spectacular in the winter with snow and ice but let's not think about that quite yet.  ;-)

So I'm calling the paint out for Stony Creek again for those who missed it this past week.  Hope to see you there. As usual, we'll eat at Stony Creek Pizza.  (I wish they served their scrumptious thin crust pizza at noon!)

Sally

STONY CREEK (Branford) 

Heading north/east on I-95, take Exit 56. Turn right (south) onto Leete's Island Road. 

Heading south/west on I-95, take Exit 56. Turn left onto E. Industrial Road. After 0.3 mi., at the traffic light, turn left again (south) onto Leete's Island Road. 

On Leete's Island Road, go 1.6 mi to a stop sign at Rte 146. Stony Creek Package Store will be in front of you. Cross Rte 146 diagonally to Thimble Island Road, going between the package store and a shop called Taken for Granite. Go about 0.4 mile, passing under a railroad bridge. After the bridge, continue to the beach area.  If you want, continue to the little fork in the road and stay left (Thimble Island Road continues) and you can park on either side of that road all the way till it dead ends at the sea wall.  

Art event at Mercy Center

From Joan Handschumacher:

Joan Hickey was one of the original members of CTSA.  She is having her closing reception at the Mercy Center on Nov 5, 5-7 PM.  Below is her letter:

Dear friends and painting buddies,
 I've seen many of you and read book notes at my exhibit at the Mercy
Center, thank you!  I would love to have a glass of wine and a chat with any
of you who haven't been out to see my collage work, STRONG COURAGEOUS WOMEN.
It represents 20 years work, a retrospective  from 1996 through last May. I have
written a short book about this work and printed several views for note
cards.

It's been a great run and many of the benefits will be contributed  to the
non-denominational outreach work of the Mercy Center,"Nuns on the Bus".

 Recently we had a cocktail party with many sisters on a not so silent
retreat and many members of AA. It was great fun and we drank a lot of
Pellegrino water...plus!!

 Angela Clemmons of the Shoreline Gospel Singers and her brother and sisters
had everyone clapping and praising their own special Lord and singing their
hearts out.

 Don't forget that even though this work captures the exciting changes in
women's lives in the female gaze since Cave Women Painters, all brave men
drink free!

 Love to see you, Joan  (Hickey)

Stony Creek day

I just had to post a couple shots from today.  It was beautiful at Stony Creek.  At 9 AM, the SSW winds were blowing through the gazebo area where we usually paint.  The spartina grasses were golden among the dark wet rocks but it would have been impossible to keep our easels upright there.  So all four of us took off looking for a place to shield from the wind as the blue skies kept peeking out from behind the clouds.

Betsey and I used the large building at the fork of the road farther down the street from the beach gazebo as a wind breaker and had a couple of structures as subjects.  Sharon and Marge walked farther down that street to the tidal inlet and managed to keep out of the wind.

So Stony Creek plein air days have so much more to offer when we are not scorched by the summer sun and especially in the fall.

Sally

P.S. Still unsure about the venue for next week.  Depends on the weather forecast.

paint out Thursday Stony Creek

Rain is no longer in our forecast for Thursday, 69 degrees and partly cloudy.  

Looks like a perfect plein air day for the end of October on the CT shoreline.  

Sally  

Stony Creek Paint out - Thursday Oct 29

The forecast is 69 degrees next Thursday, so let's paint one more time near the water before it gets too cold and we are chased inland.  A shower is forecast at some point with periods of sun.  So let's see if it makes for a good plein air day.  If it's only a spotty shower, there are two gazebos for cover.

We will meet at our usual time of 9 AM.

STONY CREEK WATERFRONT, Stony Creek (Branford) 

Heading north/east on I-95, take Exit 56. Turn right (south) onto Leete's Island Road. 

Heading south/west on I-95, take Exit 56. Turn left onto E. Industrial Road. After 0.3 mi., at the traffic light, turn left again (south) onto Leete's Island Road. 

On Leete's Island Road, go 1.6 mi to a stop sign at Rte 146. Stony Creek Package Store will be in front of you. Cross Rte 146 diagonally to Thimble Island Road, going between the package store and a shop called Taken for Granite. Go about 0.4 mile, passing under a railroad bridge. After the bridge, continue for about 0.2 mi. to the area along the sea wall, near the gazebo by the beach.  There's another gazebo farther down by the boat taxis and tour boats.  

For those who want to meet for lunch, we will eat at Stony Creek Pizza (they don't serve pizza at lunchtime) around noonish.  

Sally 

Another CTSA paint out— Wednesday, October 21

CTSA (a.k.a, the Thursday plein air group) has been invited to paint with the Madison Art Society's plein air group (a.k.a., Jay's group) next Wednesday.   (Note: And CTSA will still paint at the Florence Griswold on Thursday morning to take advantage of this spectacular fall weather).

The MAS group painted at Wettemann Farm a couple of weeks ago.  The owners are simply some of the most generous, kind, and gregarious people who love farming, horses, and chicken (fresh eggs to buy).  They sell maple syrup in the spring from their own trees.  It's a magical old farm.

Directions:

From Madison area and points east—take route 80 towards Branford. Go though the junction of 80 and 77 (Dudley Farm corner). Continue on route 80 through the next light and in about a mile take a right on County Rd. It has a V shaped entrance with a grassy area in the center.

**In a half mile you will hit a fork / junction with  stop sign facing the other direction.  Go left on to West Street - clearly marked with a street sign.  In 1.2 miles Wettemann Farm will be on the left.  Horses, and a large metal rounded storage garage for equipment etc. You won't miss it. Park along the sides of the entrance along the road up to the house on the right.

From New Haven and points west—take I-91 to exit 8.  The exit ramp lands on route 80.  Head east on route 80 for ~8 miles.  Take a left onto County Road and follow the above directions from
the **.  (Agway is about 300 yards before the turn for County Road.)  

From the north, there are other options using either route 22 or route 77.

Call to Paint Florence Griswold Museum Old Lyme October 22

I discussed stopping the wrap-ups with our lunch group at Essex.  The group was fine with having no more wrap-ups and no more photos of the paintings or group shots.   Thanks to everyone who participated in wrap-ups in the past.  

There will always be a group of us stopping to eat around noon and everyone is welcome to join.  Eight of us gathered for lunch at the CT River Museum and had an impromptu critique which was helpful and fun.  

We have permission to paint at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme next Thursday.  They asked us to park in the lot farthest from the museum as there is a Wee Fairie Event on the grounds which attracts a large paying crowd.  Since we are allowed on the grounds for free, we need to be considerate.

You can drop off your painting equipment as you drive around the circle so you don't have to lug it as far if you are painting down by the river.  And if you paint on the patio of the Krieble Gallery and are using oils or pastels, please use a drop cloth.

Thank you.

Sally