Walker sisters cabin – Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art

I thought this was the barn. Turns out it is the corn crib. I had been wondering how it protected the mules and the pigs when it got snowed and iced. Evidently there was a barn but the park tore it down or moved it.

The Walker Sisters Corn Crib the old Cedar was there during the sisters lifetime.

These structures were sometimes called “plunder sheds,” as farmers used them to store miscellaneous items such as barbed wire, brooms, firewood, and tools. From Wikipedia The Walker Sisters Cabin. You can read more about it here. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Sisters_Place

Painting the picture

Drawn sitting on the sisters old log bench in the drizzly rain in my Stillman and Birn Zeta with a Noodler Conrad flex nib pen loaded with Noodler lexington grey ink.

I started with a wash of Sky aka cerulean and trees – spring green and viridian. I let that dry and added the trees in the background with Indigo and raw Sienna in different strengths.

The corn crib was painted with the same colors. Some burnt umber washed over the greys of the building. Also vermilion mixed with indigo.

The dogwood was painted with white gouache. I get to impatient to wait for the masking to dry but I really need to use it. I think for the lacy looking dogwoods it would look better.

The grass really was that bright from all the rain. It was made with spring green or sap green and viridian mixed with some negative painting.
The interior of the cabin. That fireplace had to let out a lot of heat!! I can’t imagine timbering the trees and chopping the wood to keep this fireplace roaring in the cold wintry weather.

Star Chickweed growing on the side of the mountain.

Crested Dwarf Iris a small plant. The photo was take. With the iPhone be 6 resting on the ground.

Another crested dwarf iris. It was a rainy drizzly day. Everything was set including us.

Wild Geranium by the old roadside to the cabin.

Greenbriar School above Metcalf Bottoms. The old school desks and black board are still in it. The cemetery is where the Walker family are buried. The sisters would have walked 2 miles from their cove to attend school or church here. There was a clapboard church built after this school where church was held until the park bought the land and tore down the church. The sisters lived here almost another 40 years with their family and community gone their 120 odd acres of land sold to the park for $4000. They were happy because they still had each other and could stay on their farm. Tough independent ladies.

Thanks for looking.

about 2 miles up a mountain and across a stream sits the Walker Sisters Cabin along with several out buildings. The five sisters held a lifetime lease and lived in this two room cabin till their deaths. Their father built the cabin when Abe Lincoln was still practicing law.

The hike up there is lovely with wildflowers on the side of the road but I can’t imagine what it would be like to live so far from civilization. I guess they didn’t go to the store very often!

Four of the five Walker Sisters. From a 1946 Saturday Evening Post article http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/time-stood-still-in-the-smokies-SEP.pdf

Painting the picture

Done in my Stillman and Birn Zeta. Drawn with A Noodler Conrad pen and lexington grey ink in the rainy drizzle.

I started with a wash of Sky aka cerulean and trees – spring green and viridian. I let that dry and added the trees in the background with indigo and a grey made by adding burnt sienna to the indigo. Different strengths of these two colors make the trees recede into the woods.

The cabin was painted with the same colors. Yellow ochre was added on the chimney burnt umber washed over the greys of the cabin.

The dogwood was painted with white gouache. Next time I think I will use some masking on a sponge to do this. I like the look better.

My son crossing the log bridge to the Walker Sisters Cabin
(Painting the picture continued)

The grass was added with the same spring green and viridian as the background just not as diluted. Some negative painting with the darker green was done to make the grass spikes.

A red salamander that was on the foundation rocks of the cabin.