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I've known about Craighead Forest Park since I moved to Jonesboro several years ago. I've been a few times and thought it was nice. It is the best attraction in Jonesboro, according to TripAdvisor. Though I've lived here going on ten years now, I don't think I've fully appreciated its beauty or what it has to offer until I've started to paint it.

Craighead Forest Park

This park was established in 1937 by the Young Men's Civic Club, but is now a city owned park. This 692 acre park sits in the city of Jonesboro on Crowley's Ridge, a unique geological formation. Some of the attractions in the park includes a lake, trails, fishing, camping, playgrounds, pavilions for large events, softball, volleyball, and basketball. For more information on the trails, checkout this blog or this page on AllTrails.

It's sad that I had only visited the park a handful of times since moving here until recently. One day, I decided to paint the park. It turned out to be a pretty good little painting, 'A Walk in the Woods'.  Even though the day I chose to paint out at Craighead was a heat advisory day, I still had fun. I felt like I had gone on an adventure, though I was still in the city limits and barely started down a trail. You can read more about my little adventure on that day here.

Why I Started to Paint this Park

This started out as a way for me to improve my plein air painting skills. I wanted to paint more, not less, and this park afforded me a convenient opportunity. Previously I had driven one to two hours away to paint what I thought was a prettier location. I finally realized after painting at Craighead park one afternoon, that I could just paint here and it would save significantly on travel time. I can be on location and beginning to set up to paint in ten to fifteen minutes. 

Hidden Beauty

Since I've been going to Craighead Forest Park to paint, I've noticed that I notice more of it's quiet beauty. I appreciate the gorgeous resource we have in our town. I used to think it was just a simple little park, not much to see, because it lacked the grandeur of the national parks out west with majestic peaks rising to touch the sky or the ageless beauty of the Ozark Mountains. Since I have started to paint this park, a whole new level of beauty has opened up to me. I see beauty in the simple ripples on the lake or in the tree-lined trails and lake.

I've only just begun to paint this little gem of a park. The first painting was 'A Walk in the Woods', but I'm quickly amassing quite a collection of paintings of the lake. My favorite spot at the moment is near Pavilion Five. This offers a fine view of the lake in either the morning or the afternoon. The composition is fairly straightforward and it allows me opportunity to practice on my values, temperatures, and technique. Every time I visit the park, even this same spot, I find something new and beautiful that I hadn't seen before.

Monet's and McPherson's Backyards

Others have painted the same thing over and over again. Kevin McPherson, plein air artist and member of Plein Air Painters of America (PAPA), painted the pond behind his house everyday for a year. Monet began painting across Europe, but settled down to paint the pond in his backyard. Some of his most famous paintings were of the lily pond in his backyard. It is not without precedent that some artists have painted the same setting multiple times. In painting the same landscape multiple times, I find that I am seeing something new each time. Perhaps the sky is different, like today which was overcast, and the trees all look a little different than before. Or that the trees are just beginning to change from a deep green, to a yellowish green ahead of the beautiful fall colors that are hopefully to pop soon. Or I see something that I had not seen before, another layer of beauty.

A Series Begins

I'd begun a series before I knew I'd even started a series. Kinda funny how that happens. I now have two completed paintings and several in various stages of completion. Since I'll be painting the same area over and over again, I can't name every painting after the place. I will also be painting at similar times of the day, morning and evening, when the light is the best and the shadows the longest. I may end up with multiple "Clear mornings at Craighead" or multiple "Sunset over Craighead Lake". To make the identification of each individual painting easier, I've decided to start two series of the park: Craighead Forest Lake Series and Craighead Forest Trail Series.

This painting is the second of the Craighead Forest Lake Series. I plan to number the individual paintings in the series, thus this will be number one. I started this to learn to paint better, but I may continue it to learn to appreciate this beautiful park more. I will be curious to compare number one hundred to this first one and to see what has changed. I am sure my appreciation and love of the park will have grown and that will be apparent in my paintings. We will both have to wait for that painting to compare and see for ourselves. Until then, I hope you enjoy this first installment of the series.