Madewood Plantation, LA

In New Orleans there was an art supply store in the French Quarter named Dixie Art Supply.  They sponsored workshops for artists at the Madewood Plantation in Napoleanville.  I was so lucky to attend a few times, with Edgar Whitney as the demonstrator.  The front house was a huge mansion like that of Gone With the Wind and in the back yard was this simple slave house which I did a painting of with the chickens running all around.  There was one big rooster, King Strut as he was known and he ruled the roost.  I could tell stories of him and in fact he has occurred in art magazines of which other artists have painted him.  Some other time I’ll share a story about that.  But for this time, I have fond memories of being at the plantation.  They had breakfast and lunch for us artists and oh my goodness what delicious food. I over ate and then could hardly paint!  It was cold wintertime and I had three layers of clothes on and was freezing, had to go thaw my hands out by the fireplace.  Edgar was the best teacher I ever had and known as an American Classic for sure.  Many famous artists have learned from him.  The painting of the shack is in oil and it was done ala prima, which means all at once, using a copal medium.