Painting trip to Maldon, Castlemaine State Festival

Kate and I went back to Maldon for a painting trip. This small town, about 1 1/2 hour drive northwest of Melbourne, has become our favourite weekend getaway place.

For our stay, we again booked Nuggetty Cottage. We love this cottage. It's got a lovely character. 

On Sunday afternoon, we decided to paint this beautiful stone-built place.

I'm very happy with this one. I think I was able to capture autumn light in the late afternoon.

I tried not to do any details, just focusing on big shapes and tones. I think we spent about two hours.

Oil on panel. 10 x 12 in.

Earlier in the day, we drove to Castlemaine to have a look at arts festival. 

This is a biannual event, and I've been meaning to come for a long time, but, so far haven't been able to. That's why I was very excited to make it at last.

We had a look at some exhibitions in the area. Castlemaine Art Gallery has a great collection. It's my first time visit, and I really enjoyed it. 

And this art space called 'Lot 19' is definitely our favourite. There are 19 studios, and we had some good chat with artists.

We had a lunch at 'Origini'. Kate recommended this cafe, and believe me, this is a great place to relax and savour good food, drink and cake! Ingrid and Luca are just lovely.

On Monday, we decided to paint this building across from Castlemaine Botanical Gardens.

I don't think I did a good job, unfortunately. I haven't painted buildings for a long time.
I can see now a lot of mistakes in perspective, and the colour of the building is not right at all.
However, I'm happy with the sky.

Oil on panel. 10 x 12 in.

Again, we're very lucky. The weather was good, people are very friendly, nice food....

It was a great weekend.