Blog #3
On this trip, I brought my Mom along with me to explore the Burg & brush up on our history! We stayed at the Cashtown Inn, a B&B known for its involvement during the Civil War. It served as a makeshift field hospital. I unknowingly booked the room with the most ghost sightings. The whole trip, my mom and I had very light-hearted conversations about war and what we think will happen when we die.
The Inn included a free tour of the basement, where I imagine many amputations occurred. We also took a step back into history for a candlelit dinner at Dobbins Tavern, built in 1776. It's the cities oldest standing structure! It brought back the sights, sounds & tastes from two centuries ago. ***Their rum cocktails were delicious.
For Saturdays wedding, I left my Mom to fend for herself in a haunted room. She probably had a seance. She ain't afraid of no ghosts! Sadly, no ghosts sightings to report, but my Mom did feel a slight chill in the middle of the night!? I do think sleeping in a haunted building gave me a nice adrenaline rush to paint at Anna & Cody's wedding!
Anna & Cody's wedding was at the Stone Mill Inn in Hallam, Pa. Since the theme of the weekend is history- The Stone Mill was built in 1736 on 12 acres of beautiful woodlands and gardens. It operated as a grist mill for many years, and in 1997 the facility began hosting weddings! It’s beautiful. I would definitely travel to paint there again.
Prior to their wedding, Cody & I worked together to plan their portrait. The idea was to paint them walking together in front of the ceremony space, which was a beautiful A-frame pergola. Immediately after their ceremony, I conveniently got an amazing photo of them during their ceremony exit. They saw me taking a video of them at the end of the pathway & understood the assignment. They gave me the BEST smiles!
When I started the painting, I was feeling incredibly indecisive with the composition. I redid the sketch 3 times! So I stepped away to center myself and let my intuition decide. Once I got the sketch in, the painting came together SO quickly. The sketch is everything. That's why we arrive early to take our time with this step. If the sketch is rushed, we'll spend the rest of the evening fixing our mistakes. You deserve top notch sketches :)
I was painting in what seemed like a room full of doctors. Live painting allows us to have fascinating conversations with all walks of life. We love it so much. A few plastic surgeons were having fun giving me constructive criticism on the likeness of the couple. We laughed & laughed :D The kids also helped me out quite a bit, as did Cody & Anna. Anna added the yellow flowers in her bouquet and Cody added some foliage in the trees. I think I met some future artists this past weekend!
Before our drive home, we made one last pitstop & thank goodness we did... I forgot to crack open my car windows overnight so the paint fumes were strong! We stopped at the Gettysburg battlefields where the bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought from July 1–3, 1863. We hiked around and took a self guided tour of Little Roundtop & Devil’s Den. I think it's something everyone should check out!
Thanks Mom for the company! Thanks Anna & Cody for including me in your beautiful wedding!
Artist: Stephanie Cassidy Schafer