This location is special because it is land used to feed a community and guests, and perhaps more importantly, to teach gardening, in particular, “permaculture” gardening. The greenhouse is a working example of volunteer effort to create an environmentally friendly structure that is aesthetically pleasing and functional, incorporating local and recycled materials in this stone, timber, rock, cob and straw bale walled stucco surfaced structure.
There had been an unexpected heavy February snowfall the night before, and on the following morning I went out to explore the results across the campus. When I got to the garden setting I saw that the area had been transformed and reduced from the usual colors of the raw, hard, earth with dull colored dead and dormant plants and grasses, to this landscape sandwiched between the white-gray of the fresh snow and matching overcast sky. This was so unexpectedly different than what I was accustomed to seeing on a daily bases. Previously, I seldom would have thought to make a painting of this setting, but this time my attention was held. I realized that the weather was again changing as the morning moved toward midday, it was going to be warm by the next day and perhaps all this snow would be mostly gone. I quickly went home and got my paintbox and a canvas, and bundled up a little warmer. I guessed that I would have a few good hours left to paint in…
(Note- For detailed information on the project, if you would like to know more about the construction of the greenhouse, go to: http://www.pendlehill.org/community/food-and-garden/94-greenhouse )