The weather forecast promised a hot and humid day with a heat index over 100 degrees. We picked up the cart at 7 a.m., and made our way through the woods. The alternate map, Corinna gave me, cut out the narrow bridge of the nature trail. We traversed through more longleaf pine forest. All was very quiet and luckily, our movement kept bugs away. We arrived at our destination around 7:45. The trail ended on a narrow elevated piece of land. Lake Juniper on our left and wetlands on our right. There was a bench in a little clearing. If you deviated from this clearing, horse flies came from every direction! As Rhonda in the park office said, “Oh, they might lick your applied bug spray before they bite…..” So true!!

I set my supplies on the bench seat and then stood behind the bench, resting my watercolor paper, small palette and water container on the flat top of the back rest. Great bench design for painting!

The morning sunlight and the humid air muted the colors of the cypress landscape. It would have been great fun to canoe through these dancing ladies……..

I managed to get two paintings done before the heat became intolerable. Took lots of photographs 🙂

It’s sad that the week went so quickly. I’m grateful the heat wave didn’t arrive until the end of the week. I’ve a lot of images to cull through when I return home. My plein air work will help me re-capture ‘the day’ back in the studio. I’ve photographed so many scenes I want to paint. It may be difficult to pick which painting to give to the park 🙂

Thank you to all the Cheraw State Park staff! You’re so lucky to spend each day in this wonderful location. The park will forever be a part of my heart.