Sunday, July 5, 2009

Mt. Shasta Lavender Farm

We started early in the morn, to get all the way down to the Mt. Shasta area by 9-ish. The recent class I taught (an 8 day time period, with 3 meeting times) had opted to go paint out at the blooming lavender fields rather than meet in the classroom. When we left Ashland, Oregon it was a grey, cool day, but as soon as we passed into California, the sun was brilliant. The perfect day for outdoor painting.

We arrived just after the Lavender Farms opened and toured the area, snapping photos and envisioning where we'd what to start our plein air sketches. In the charming French style shop, we were greeted with the smell of lavender filling the room and a cup of lavender-lemonade, with a lavender swirl stick!

On the walls they have showing various renditions of other artists images of the purple fields. One was a photo which may have used filters for it's effects, but I devoured the deep orange earth color and the late evening shadows - they were so strong and vibrant. And although the day was bright, light and breezy, you can see the sketch I ended up with mimicked those colors AND time of day.

We settled about center of the lavender rows and savored the bees humming and birds flitting from spot to spot. The magnificent Mt. Shasta pontificated over the entire scene and each of the class participants got varied renditions filled with self-expression and use of varied media.

And although we'd planned on leaving around 1pm, it was after 3pm when we'd finished our second cup of the lavender-lemonade and eaten our treat, a shared bag of shortbread cookies.

The day ended with weary artists but, many terriffic images, both mental and digital, to proceed with other paintings. I'm chewing on returning to the Lavender Farm to catch the lavender more full in bloom and to see it late in the day. I mean, how many times can one visit a goregous place? My answer ... endless times!!!

3 comments:

Elizabeth B Merriman said...

Your lavender page is so beautiful.... you inspire me with your pages... I hope to connect with you when I am in OR later on this week.

Peggi Habets Studio said...

Your journal pages are so incredibly beautiful. Not only the artwork, but the lettering and layout too. You amaze me!

Lynette Gooch said...

Have you heard of Tuscan Heights Lavender Gardens?

About 125 South of Montague, CA…Not far from Redding, CA is another unique and beautiful speciality lavender garden. Tuscan Heights Lavender Gardens.

At Tuscan Heights, we grow over 200 different varieties of lavender, along with over 150 different culinary herbs, edible flowers and a beautiful boutique vineyard. Our farm is very different from Mt. Shasta Lavender farm and I believe our farms complement each other. Mt. Shasta is such a beautiful location… and the amazing purple fields of English and lavandin lavender at the base of the Volcano… well, it’s quite spectacular!

If you visit our gardens at Tuscan Heights, you will experience something equally spectacular, but different at the same time… You can walk through our fields of over 200 different varieties of lavender, pick kiwi gold raspberries in our beautiful herb gardens, sit in a peaceful secret scented garden next to the small waterfall, while sipping some delicious lavender tea or lavender lemonade, take home a HUGE lavender bundle, learn how to weave a traditional lavender wand, and learn how we steam distill our lavender flowers to make our pure essential lavender oil that is used in all of our organic and all natural bath and body product line…

If you are in the Northern California region, we sure hope you can check out Tuscan Heights Lavender Gardens, next season!

Until then, check us out on the web at: http://www.tuscanheights.net