This is a painting of the Hudson Bend Grocery, a tiny grocery store down the street from the lakehouse on Lake Travis where my son and I spent last week. My grandparents bought a place on the lake in the 1950’s so we enjoyed the use of the house last week. This little grocery store is about 2 miles from the lake, it’s a great place to get popsicles or other necessary items. My “necessary items” would be chocolate and Diet Coke, but I think they sell mostly cigarettes and beer. Go figure.
When I was a kid my family would come up to the lake for long weekends and this little grocery store always signaled we were just minutes away from the lake! I set up across the road under some shade and spent an hour and a half painting. There was a laundromat close to where I set up and a mother and her two sweet children came by a couple of times. They lived in the trailer park across the street. These two kids were darling and talkative, they wanted to be in my photo. There was also a 15 year old boy who kept coming by on his bike, he was working at the sno cone shack next to the road. When he didn’t have customers he would get on his bike and come see my progress. He was a pleasure to visit with. A number of adults came by to see what I was up to too.
It was so much fun to be ‘parked’ on that corner that afternoon, I feel like I got a window into life on that corner. That’s another great thing about plein air painting, getting to know the area. For ever I’ve just driven right by that corner or made a quick stop at the grocery store.