This last weekend I visited Savannah for the first time (5/2-4) Looks to me like a huge oversight. It’s Charleston without the snoots. My wife and I drove down and stayed in the Hilton while watching our newest grandchild Matilda while her mother and and father attended a wedding in near by Blufton SC. We went down Friday and came back on Sunday so I only got in one full day of painting but still did three and a fourth was left for some studio work.
What an interesting place, with park like squares spaced every few blocks on a grid pattern. Thousands of places to paint including the riverside with all it commercial traffic. Saturday I walked down to the river and set up looking west to catch one of the big container ships that dock there and unload their cargo. I caught a big orange example under the beautiful delicate suspension bridge that frames the city. While I was painting I had several people stop bye and gave out a few cards. A few hours was all I needed to catch this view and I moved on to a street view of some of the tunnels reaching back into the city from the old wharfs along River Street. The weather grew cloudy here and I put up with a bit of rain but finished this view as the sun broke back out to stay. As I worked on this a group of photographers worked with a B&B band on photo shoot in the tunnels and several times they broke into songs rocking out and amazing me with a four girls singing back up for a guy with a great falsetto. This painting ended up being a bit dark—still playing with it.
Later I hiked to Forsythe Park —on a recommendation that it was the nicest in town. Well, my vote would go to Chippewa Square with the Daniel Chester French sculpture of James Oglethorpe. Forsythe is actually a park anyway. While there I just had to paint the famous fountain and I was trying to finish up when I got told to leave because the place was rented out for a wedding. I pulled over to the side and watched as a good looking couple vowed up. Lather I heard that this was only one of 47 weddings in town that day! That evening when I got back I set up on the balcony of the hotel for a quick 12 x24 of the sunset over the city, I’m still working on this painting. A woman I met Saturday called me on my cell Sunday morning as we were packing up and said she wanted to buy the boat painting so I met her outside the hotel—paid for half my trip! I’m playing catch up here as a few weeks have passed since but I can tell you Savannah is one place I’ll return too.
