Sailor's Creek Battlefield State Park
January 1, 2025 • We decided to take a hike to start the new year. The kids were up in New York with Mimi for the holiday, so it was just Lauren and me. There's apparently quite a number of people that start the new year hiking at the parks - they call it "First Day Hikes." We maybe could have gotten a sticker or a patch or something, but we didn't know that at the time. It was a little cold, but it seemed like a great way to kick off 2025. Plus our neighbor, Denise, who has accumulated a nice collection of my artwork, had inspired me to start a new series of art by suggesting I try to sell my stuff in the park gift shops. (Her kid, Katerina, is studying to become a Park Ranger and worked at Natural Tunnel State Park way way out west in Scott County last summer where me and the girls visited her and learned about Woodboogers...and now I suppose we'll have to go back...) Anyway, me being me, I turned that little suggestion into a giant mega-project, and decided I would visit all 43 Virginia State Parks and do a piece for each one. Pretty ambitious - but it would combine two of my favorite things - family time in the parks, and image making - so it made a lot of sense. And what better day to start than New Year's Day?
I wanted to start at one of the smaller parks, and not travel too far. I also didn't want to hit the larger parks without the kids plus I wanted to wait for better weather and greener foliage. Pocahontas is the closest park to our house, but we've been there a gazillion times so that would have been an anti-climactic beginning. So amongst the other fairly close-by parks there's a trio right off State Route 460 that includes Sailor's Creek. (I was actually thinking way too ambitiously that we could hit one or two of the others, lol.) So, Lauren and I head out to hike Sailor's Creek Battlefield. I took about 25 pictures around the park, intending to create a mixed media digital painting in a similar fashion as my recent Richmond and HorrorTecture series. I hand-draw the architecture, or in this case the landscape, with Micron pens and Sharpie markers, as well as the abstract things, also with Sharpie markers, and then scan them into the Mac to combine them with (also) hand-made watercolor textures. For these pieces (as well as RA27 and L&S) the watercolor textures were (mostly) created for me by Meaghan and Madison. Here's what the parts look like:
As far as the park goes, here is the info as provided on the dcr.virginia.gov website:
On April 6, 1865, Confederate General Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia wearily trudged its way through Amelia County in hopes of reaching greatly needed supplies at Farmville, Virginia. At Sailor’s Creek, Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces successfully cut off the line of retreat and attacked the rear guard. The result was an overwhelming Union victory, having captured wagons, artillery, approximately 7,700 combatants, and 8 Confederate generals. 72 hours later, General Lee would be surrendering the remainder of his army to General Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House, thus effectively ending the fighting in Virginia.
The staff at Sailor’s Creek present living history programs and events throughout the year at various times. Motorists traveling along Lee’s Retreat may learn more about the Appomattox Campaign and the battle through interpretive signs along the route. Tours of the historic Overton-Hillsman house, which was used by both armies as a field hospital, can be arranged upon request.
After Lauren and I hiked about the 370 some-odd acres, we headed over to Farmville and had a nice lunch at The Fishin' Pig. And that's how we started 2025 - and this enormous new art project and family goal of hitting 43 state parks...in a year...or two...
Oh...PS...me being me...I didn't do just one piece...I kinda kept going. I was having fun. Here the finished pieces so far:
Powhatan State Park
February 1, 2025 • Yeah...43 parks in a year or two? Probably not. A whole month later and we finally visited our second park. Clearly this little hike and draw project is gonna maybe take me more than a couple years, lol. Still kinda cold and barren out there so we kept our venture pretty close to home again, shooting up to Powhatan State Park, about 45 minutes north of here.