Late Summer Roses - New Work in Progress

A few weeks ago I was one of the plein air artists working at the PA Governor's Residence, as detailed in my previous blog post here.  The weather was on the warm side but otherwise lovely, and I set up my workstation in the shade of the arches near the rose garden. 

I was particularly intrigued by the contrast between the hard geometric shapes of the brick pathways, and the roses enjoying one last full flush of bloom. 

Here's a panorama view showing more of the roses, and the side entrance to the Residence.  On the left is the large magnolia tree that was the focus of my plein air work there last year, resulting in the eponymous Magnolia art quilt:

Magnolia, by Sue Reno

(You can track back blog post about the creation of Magnolia here.)

This time around I knew where to set my expectations.  A lot of the pleasure of working in this kind of setting is talking to and interacting with the public, so my focus was on that and on getting the basics of the scene blocked out.

I talked a lot about fiber art, and needlefelting, and had my needlefelting flip book there to show how my typical work-in-progress proceeds.  I gave out samples of roving to children, and let interested visitors take a stab at using the needlefelting tool.  

By the end of the afternoon I had blocked out the path and the large trees, and had a firm vision in my head of where I wanted to take this piece when I got back into the studio.  It was a good day.