Spring Park plein air

What: FCPS plein air
Where: Spring Park, Green Cove Springs
When: April 4, 2015, 9 AM to 1 PM

Back in the fall of 2011 the First Coast Pastel Society was just a gleam in Lyn Asselta's eye. In fact we didn't even have that name in mind yet at the time, but Lyn held a meeting at her home and tried to invite as many folks as she could reach out to to see if there was enough interest to form a pastel society for this area. There was a lot of enthusiasm so she decided to go ahead. That very next month, in November of 2011, we decided to have a plein air paint-out.

The venue chosen was Spring Park in Green Cove Springs, and we had about a dozen enthusiastic pastelists show up and paint. It was a wonderful day, and such a lovely place to paint that it seemed high time to go back there again now that we are formally a society with many more members.

Spring Park lies on the banks of the St. Johns River, on the east side of US 17 as it goes through the heart of Green Cove Springs. If you click on the link above you will see it lies between Walnut St. and Spring St.

The park has wonderful  water views, with a fishing pier that goes far out over the river. Sometimes interesting boats are docked at the far end of the pier. There are covered picnic areas and a large gazebo (which we took advantage of our first time there when it began to drizzle). There is a small brook leading from the iconic spring down to the river. There are lots of trees.

In short, there are all sorts of wonderful potential subjects for plein air. Not to mention two rest rooms!

Lots of birds too if you want to capture some wildlife in your paintings.  Below is the painting done that day by our own Richard Lundgren - as fantastic an artist then as he is now. :-)

The park is in the heard of downtown Green Cove, so there are also interesting historic buildings nearby that could be your subjects as well.

And if you need a pick-me-up or would rather have pizza (or other Italian food) for lunch rather than a picnic - well Spring Park Coffee and D'Fontana's Italian Restaurant are both on Ferris St., an easy walk.

NOTE: There is some destruction/construction going on at the park on the Walnut Street side, but the park is still open. However better to park in the lot by the playground on the Spring St. side, or at the end of Spring St. down by the picnic area along the river.