On a Lazy Day in Matfield Green: The Second Finding Faith Project Complete

After the incredible response that our first Finding Faith project received, I was really eager to get to work on the second, and we nearly pulled it off in record time. The video and photo shoot went perfectly.  So perfect in fact, that it seemed the "art gods" were with us once again...a funny saying that Faith and I have started to say whenever things are going very well. But then life happened...not in a bad way, but in a busy way...and the painting came forth like a slug.  I never thought I would get it done and was tempted so many times to just "call it good enough", but the perfectionist in me won't allow such an ending and I HAD to keep going until it was right.  Even though I am not striving to be a realistic painter on this project, it is important to me to capture certain details and moods and emotions in the painting that are present in the short videos that we create as well as the photographs.  For those of you that paint, you KNOW this does not usually come easily.  We have to work for it.

A little bit about our setting...it was shot in a very teeny tiny town called Matfield Green, which is a little over an hour away from Wichita.  This little place is nestled in the beautiful Flint Hills of Kansas and its population is 50.  That's right...50.  I did not forget any zeros!  It would be easy to miss it, except for the hilarious signs they have along Highway 177 reading "Matifield Green Next 3 Exits".   But they are not exits, they are just streets.  The 50 people in Matfield Green have a great sense of humor.  :)

We filmed at a place called Pioneer Bluffs which is a gorgeous public property with many uses.  It consists of lots of tall trees, a creek, an old cabin from 1859, which you will see in the project, and many other interesting buildings and barns.  We were lucky on the day of the shoot because there was not a soul there.  It was early Spring and Pioneer Bluffs was operating  on their Winter schedule, which means it was basically closed (thank you, art gods).  

Modeling for this project are my beautiful niece Faith and her handsome fiancé Sam.  They did such a fantastic job at the shoot.  It is not always easy because there is a little bit of acting necessary for this, and they have to put up with me constantly saying things like "turn your head this way...walk that way...no, other way...look at me, now look away", etc.  Their patience was extraordinary the entire time.  They moved with grace and their expressions were brilliant as you will see in the video and photos.  I could not have asked for an easier pair to work with!  Thank you again Faith and Sam!

So here we go with a simple story told in film, photos and painting...

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On a Lazy Day in Matfield Green

On a Lazy Day in Matfield Green
oil on canvas
24 x 30 inch

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Thank you all so much for your incredible enthusiasm for our project!  It has been a joy to create these and the fact that they bring joy to others encourages me to do more.  Thank you again!

♥ Lisa