"S. Dennis Rd. Creek" -- field study 11x14" -- oil on canvas -- Margie Guyot

Woke up this morning at 4, unable to breathe. Must have some kind of nasty little cold. What to do at that hour? Get online and hope for daylight to hurry up & arrive, that's what! We're still on Daylight Savings Time, so daylight doesn't really show up here until after 8 AM.

I was showered, dressed and all set to roll this morning. Headed east on Essex Road towards Ellsworth. Yesterday morning I turned onto North Dennis Road; this morning I headed onto South Dennis Road. I don't know who that Dennis guy was, but he's got a pretty road. Just a one-laner dirt road, but it runs through pretty land.

This spot is just north of Toad Creek Road (tip: never try driving that road in the springtime or after a hard rain! You'll end up stuck in the middle of nowhere, miles from civilization.) There is a very small creek here that caught my eye. As I set up, I saw 4 huge turkey vultures sitting in a dead tree a little further over. As the sun rose, they'd spread their wings and sit, letting the sun's rays heat their tired old bones. One by one, they eventually flew off. Most of the time while I painted, they were there, watching me and croaking. Or maybe it was ravens or crows that were croaking. If I was the skittish type, I'd have freaked out and vamoosed long before the painting was finished! It would have been a good place to have been ambushed & eaten by a bear or mountain lion.

What I liked about this scene was that most of it was in shade when I arrived. Only a few streaks of golden sunlight fell across the land. It's still very early in the fall season up here and the foliage was only beginning to start in with a few shades of red and gold. As it grew lighter with the sun, I could see into the shallow creek bottom. Small trout were flitting about. No tresspassing signs all over. No hunting, no fishing. Good. I didn't see any "no painting" signs, thank goodness.