Roanoke River Near Niagara Dam, Blue Ridge Parkway

Access this site from the trails that head down to the river from Blue Ridge Parkway parking lot by the high bridge over the river, near Explore Park. Pastels 11"x14"

Plein Air Day at Mt. Vale Vineyards, Galax, VA Coming Up

Plein Air day at Mt. Vale Orchards in Galax, VA, June 22 8-5 

For more information and registration, visit www.chestnutcreekarts.org

Bottom Creek Gorge

Bottom Creek Gorge is near Bent Mountain. About a 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot (yellow Knight trail). Well worth the effort. I chose to carry pastels to lighten my load, but Tim painted. Directions.

Rocky Knob, Virginia on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd

Rocky Knob is a magic place with thousands of potential paintings. These two are just a few angle degrees apart (the mountain partly showing on the right side of the top one, is the mountain in the bottom one), but two different seasons. The ribbon in the top one is the BRP. You can see in the bottom one cuts through a bald. What I didn't include were all the black cows that slowly wandered into view. They keep the bald a bald. This is at Saddleback (Saddle?) overlook, just north on the trail from the parking lot, an hour south of Roanoke, close to Chateau Morrisette and Floyd, around mile 169. There is a little visitors center and a campground nearby, both open seasonally. I use my internal frame backpack to carry everything. Run for cover when you hear thunder.  -- Anne Pfeiffer

Cherry Blossom Trail, Greenfield Center, Cloverdale, Virginia

I did this pastel painting looking across the pond at the Greenfield Center, via the Cherry Blossom Trail this past summer. What a fantastic place to paint. I have another one from another angle that I did this fall. I'll post that as well after I catch up on my photography.  You will probably want something on wheels to help you carry your stuff along the dirt and loose, fine gravel path.-- Anne Pfeiffer

Cahas Mountain Overlook on Blue Ridge Parkway

I did this pastel painting plein air at the Cahas Mountain overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway this summer. It was very hot in the valley and quite a few people were driving on the parkway to get out of the heat and stopping at the overlook. It was overcast that day as you can see. I set up my easel and halfway through the painting, a mom and her daughter drove up, got out of their car with their books and just sat on the grass reading. I imagined it must have been sweltering in their house, or else they just needed to be outside but out of the heat. At some point it started sprinkling, which is bad news for a pastel painting. I covered everything up and waited, then went back to painting. This painting sold at our 202 Market Gallery opening, December 7th.  --- Anne Pfeiffer

Mason Mill Park

Mason Mill is just off Hollins Road in Roanoke. Creek scenes (both tranquil and rocky), a small dam and pond, and a mill. It's drive up and paint (DUAP) but no restrooms. If you walk across the road there are smooth-water scenes of curving Tinker Creek with great shadows.

The video--sorry about the water spots on the lens!--was done in late September from location A on the map below. The photo and painting (not plein aire) is at location B.

 Directions: Take Orange Ave east from 581, go left onto Hollins and then right on Mason Mill Road, straight through a four-way stop, and it's on your left.

Happy painting!  Bill