We had the most beautiful day in June for a visit to
Weir Farm National Historic Site, the "National Park for Art."This park was the home of J Alden Weir, the father of American Impressionism. The park commemorates his home, his famous painter friends, and the artist movement of the period around 1882 to 1919. It is the only park focused on American Impressionism. My sister Janet, Catherine, Jason and I took a tour of the main home and two artists' studios. The park has over 60 acres of farmland, forests, and manicured gardens.
During the studios tour we learned how the introduction of tubes of paints during this time period allowed the painters to move their easels outside to capture the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
The best part of visiting this park is that they have painting kits available to borrow which include a mat to sit on the ground, large clipboard, paper, paper towel, paints, pencil, pen, and paintbrush. We chose to sit in the sunken garden and did our own watercolors. It was peaceful, beautiful and a satisfying chance to be creative. I'll leave it to our readers to guess who did which of these paintings!
