Rock Castle Gorge on The Beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway and More Poems Published by Clyde Kessler...

My Art

I am pleased that more and more of my prints are being bought by the public!  My main medium is oil paint but I am extremely versatile and even have a photography folder that I am very proud of.

Yesterday two small prints from my I Love the Beach folder went to a great patron in Veneta, Oregon.

Morning Light at Isle of Palms      Prints on paper or canvas and greeting cards available at kendall-kessler.artistwebsites.com

My Feet in the Sand at Isle of Palms     Prints on paper or canvas and greeting cards available at kendall-kessler.artistwebsites.com

                                                                                  

Also, a print of Ridgeland Winter Beauty on a t-shirt went to a great patron in  Thousand Oaks California.

Much of my work can be bought on just about anything on Zazzle!  Here is the address.  www.zazzle/newriverartist

Ridgeland Winter Beauty 8"x10"    original painting price - $170.00

Prints on paper or canvas and greeting cards available at kendall-kessler.artistwebsites.com

  

Life with the Bird and Word Man

Yesterday my husband, Clyde Kessler, found out he published  "Fiddling in a January Thaw" in Contemporary Haibun Online.  It will be published sometime in March.      This is the ninth poem he has published in this magazine.  Yeah Word Man!

Nothing funny out of his mouth today.  Maybe tomorrow!                                 .

Rock Castle Gorge

If I had to pick a favorite locale on the great Blue Ridge Parkway it would be Rock Castle Gorge.  I have done many paintings of this area and my husband has spent so much of his time there that I told him he should have a mail box on Rocky Knob.

Many years ago the chestnut was the basis of the economy in Rock Castle Gorge but a chestnut blight in 1914 ravaged the trees in the United States and by 1919 the American chestnut trees died out in the Rock Castle Community.

At one time there were 30 families but by 1930 there were only 10.

The Blue Ridge Parkway was created through President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Those living in the Rock Castle community had to sell their homes. 

Young men from the community found a steady paycheck working for the Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC) helping to construct the parkway.

Some of my husband's ancestors lived in Rock Castle Gorge before the establishment of the parkway.

Every fall he leads Hawk Migration studies and has spent countless hours studying birds and butterflies there.

I gained this information about Rock Castle Gorge from my husband, Clyde Kessler, and from Hike Back in Time at Rock Castle by Eliza Winston.