Wordless Wednesdays: 12 Views of Squashes and Pumpkins from Gordon Skagit Farms

 

Hands and the Farmer, Hands and the Artist

Gordon Skagit Farms — a bountiful harvest

“As Gill says, “every man is called to give love to the work of his hands. Every man is called to be an artist.” The small family farm is one of the last places – they are getting rarer every day – where men and women (and girls and boys, too) can answer that call to be an artist, to learn to give love to the work of their hands. It is one of the last places where the maker – and some farmers still do talk about “making the crops” – is responsible, from start to finish, for the thing made. This certainly is a spiritual value, but it is not for that reason an impractical or uneconomic one. In fact, from the exercise of this responsibility, this giving of love to the work of the hands, the farmer, the farm, the consumer, and the nation all stand to gain in the most practical ways: They gain the means of life, the goodness of food, and the longevity and dependability of the sources of food, both natural and cultural. The proper answer to the spiritual calling becomes, in turn, the proper fulfillment of physical need.”
― Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food

Gordon Skagit Farms does a great job marrying farming and art.  A visit there is a visual feast.

Pen and ink sketches of squashes and pumpkins

Pumpkin Painter and Farmer: Eddie Gordon

Welcome sign, Gordon Skagit Farms

Each October I look forward to seeing Eddie Gordon’s new paintings on display at Gordon Skagit Farms.  This year’s outdoor gallery was as amazing as always.  I particularly liked the painting of the pumpkin included like a land form into the Pacific NW  landscape, creating a feeling of whimsy.  This year’s bountiful squash and pumpkin harvest was matched by a prolific year of painting.

 

A Return to Jello Mold Farm on a Foggy, Fall Day

Jello molds with spider web

While I was in the Skagit Valley, I took a quick side trip to walk the flower fields at Jello Mold Farm.  It was a foggy morning, so instead of photographing in the morning light, I worked under white/gray skies.  But there was a surprising amount of color in the fields this time of year, especially in the dahlia beds.  Our warm weather has extended the growing season.  Here are a few photos from my fall visit:

Dahlia

Monk’s hood with spider web

 

Painting Day at the Gordon Skagit Farm

En plein air painting and sketching at the Gordon Skagit Farm

Several of my women friends, old and new, met for a day of painting outdoors at the Gordon Skagit Farm.  There was no shortage of vegetable models and colorful views to inspire our art making.  And we fit right in with the celebratory spirit of art in the country, surrounded as we were by Eddie Gordon’s paintings.

Painting has been largely a solitary pursuit for me, and I have come to love these informal meet-ups to paint with kindred souls.  Several of these women meet regularly and take classes together.  Someday when I’m retired I hope to be just like them!

Bonnie’s sketchbook

The painters were a magnet for curious kids

Nancy’s pumpkins

Judy at work

Maryam’s pumpkins

Libby at work

The inspiration for my first watercolor painting

My watercolor sketch of the vintage International Harvester truck

Inspiration for my second watercolor sketch

My watercolor sketch of turban squashes

 

My Annual Daytrip to Gordon Skagit Farm

Autumn displays at Gordon Skagit Farm

It has now become something of an annual tradition, this daytrip to Mount Vernon’s Gordon Skagit Farm.  (You can see my posts from previous visits here and here and here  and here.)  It has become my favorite way to celebrate autumn.  Each year Eddie Gordon displays his new work — large paintings showcased outdoors on the farm.  This year’s paintings included several magnificent mountain landscapes.  One barn features haunting scenes on darkened stage sets.  Bins of pumpkins and squashes and gourds are filled to overflowing.  I didn’t even visit the corn maze or U-pick apple orchard this year.  I love this place!

As usual, I took far too many photos to show in one blog post, so I will string them out.  Tomorrow’s post will be an online gallery of Eddie Gordon’s paintings.  And Saturday’s post will feature the paintings and sketches some of my women friends made on site, inspired by Eddie’s artistic offerings.  So stay tuned.

Entrance sign to the Gordon Skagit Farm

It was a foggy morning in the Skagit Valley

Bin of turban squashes

Woodland gown made from natural materials

More high fashion near the barn

Vintage International Harvester truck, decorated with pumpkins

Bottle gourds

Staged in the haunted barn

Spooky scene

Indian corn

Thanks for this recipe!

Kids visiting the farm

 

 

 

Jello Mold Farm in October

Sign on van, Jello Mold Farm

Harvesting some late dahlias, Jello Mold Farm

On my recent trip to the Skagit Valley, I stopped in at Jello Mold Farm to see what was happening in the flower beds. Not surprisingly, they were harvesting decorative pumpkins and gourds, but their dahlias were still blooming, too (in great numbers).

Pink dahlias

I love the fall color palette with its golden yellows and rich, jewel-like purples and reds.

Shoo Fly, a.k.a. Nicandra physalodes

Rudbeckia hirta ‘Chim Chiminee’

The ‘Queen Lime’ zinnias are still some of my favorites.

And I like to see what other unusual floral fixings catch my eye.

Monkshood, aconitum sp.

The compost heaps grow large at the end of the peak growing season, an emblem of these plants’ life cycles and regeneration.

Pumpkins, Squashes, Gourds: The Bounty at Gordon Skagit Farms

In a pumpkin shell, Gordon Skagit Farms

Gordon Skagit Farms showcases over 60 varieties of pumpkins, squashes, and gourds:  carving pumpkins, cooking pumpkins and squashes, specialty pumpkins, heirloom varieties, ornamental gourds, and apples, cider, ornamental corn and decorative cornstalks.  And the colors!  Sunset hues, to ghostly whites, sage, and blue greens.  Warty and smooth.  It’s worth the trip to revel in such bounty.

I found them quite photogenic, too.

Pumpkins lining a path, Gordon Skagit Farms

 

 

Paintings and Pumpkins: Gordon Skagit Farms

Pumpkin painting by Eddie Gordon

Gordon Skagit Farms

I suppose some people go to Gordon Skagit Farms for the pumpkins, squashes and gourds (they have over 60 varieties).  Or maybe they make the trip for the U-pick apples or pumpkin patch or corn maze.  Or perhaps they come to see the spooky Halloween dioramas and displays.  But the big draw for me is Eddie Gordon’s art.  His big paintings anchor many of the displays on the grounds.  Last year when I first wrote about Gordon’s (you can look back at that post here), I was totally bowled over by the concept of celebrating art on a working farm.  This year I was even more impressed to see that most of Eddie’s paintings were new.  What an amazing talent and body of work!

Here are some photos of Eddie Gordon’s paintings this year:

Painting at Gordon Skagit Farms

Gordon Skagit Farms

Yesterday I took a drive to the Skagit Valley to meet up with some women friends for a few hours of painting at Gordon Skagit Farms.  This was my second trip to Gordon’s, which is open only during the month of October, and I hope to make it an annual tradition.  I’ll write more about Gordon Skagit Farms in my next two posts, but for today, I will share the experience of making art with friends.  The setting couldn’t be more convivial — Eddie Gordon displays his own paintings around the farm (quite an inspiration), we’re in the glorious countryside, and the sheer variety of pumpkins, gourds, and squashes is mind-boggling.

Weathered barn at Gordon Skagit Farms

One of Eddie Gordon’s paintings displayed outside with pumpkins and squashes

I loved the colors in this squash.

Mary drawing

Libby working on her journal

Here’s the page Libby completed at Gordon’s

Nancy painting

Anne sketching

Missy’s journal and palette

Missy starting a new painting

My first watercolor sketch at Gordon’s

My second watercolor sketch at Gordon’s

Watercolor sketch from a photo I took at Gordon’s last year