Blue Ridge Parkway Valle Crucis Ghost Story and Blue Ridge Discovery Center books!

 My Artwork

Butterfly Bushes  Original 20"x24" Acrylic Painting     $960

Prints on Paper or Canvas and Greeting Cards Available at    KENDALL KESSLER ART

Sunset on The New River   Original 7"x9" Oil painting    $136

Prints on Paper or Canvas and Greeting Cards Available at    KENDALL KESSLER ART

Valle Crucis Ghost Story

Another frightening story from Valle Crucis in The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina!

The name of the town comes from two streams that meet at right angles in the middle of the valley.
Two men were driving by an old stone church on highway 194  when a huge dog with gleaming eyes jumped out in front of them.

The dog was a big as a man and had bristling fur and massive yellow teeth. The driver sped away only to see the dog in the rear view mirror following and actually keeping up with the car that was going 80 miles an hour!

The men really believed this dog was from Hell so the driver hit the accelerator one more time and sped over the bridge that goes across the two streams.

The dog stopped following them and the men wondered what it was about the water that stopped this supernatural dog!

The writer of the story claims he knew the driver of the car and considered him to be an honest man. 

The writer is very cautious about traveling near the graveyard of the old stone church and counts the seconds before he gets to the bridge!

I found this great ghost story on Stories from the Mountains online publication

Life with The Bird and Word Man - Clyde Kessler

On The Blue Ridge Discovery Center Website there is a great list of books for people interested in this beautiful mountain region!

For the Blue Ridge:

• Hollows, Peepers, and Highlanders - An Appalachian Mountain Ecology, George Constantz 
• A Fly Fisherman's Blue Ridge, Christopher Camuto

Other must reads:

• A Songbird Journeys - Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds, Miyoko Chu
• The Trees in My Forest, Bernd Heinrich
• Winter World, Bernd Heinrich
• The Beak of the Finch, Jonathan Weiner 
• Home Ground - Language for an American Landscape, Barry Lopez, Debra Gwartney
• A Natural Sense of Wonder, Rick Van Noy

Fabulous Fancy Gap on The Blue Ridge Parkway and A Real Hug...

My Artwork

One of my favorite Blue Ridge Parkway sites, Fancy Gap, has been the inspiration for two of my paintings.  Wildflowers Near Fancy Gap was sold to a great patron in Chicago.

Farm Near Fancy Gap is still available. It is quite an effort to ship a 30"x40" oil painting on masonite which is a lot heavier than canvas but I have been doing that for around thirty years.

I have never had an accident or return - just compliments!  This patron wanted to frame it herself so I left off the light-weight metal frame I put my large paintings in.  Most patrons want to have the work professionally framed to suit their tastes.

I didn't have a problem with the packaging but for some reason I must have put in the wrong information on UPS and was given a quote that was much higher than It usually is.  I contacted the patron and she said it was all right but when UPS came the price was much lower.

We were having a hard time with adjusting the price on Paypal so I decided to just include a check for the difference.

Things work out!

Wildflowers at Fancy Gap by Kendall Kessler

ARTIST RETAINS FULL COPYRIGHT OF ARTWORK AND IS PROTECTED BY US AND INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAWS

Life with the Bird and Word Man

  

My husband, Clyde Kessler, is always such a great help with my efforts to bring more attention to my artwork.  In my efforts to give more background to my subject matter he is always there with some help.

Yesterday, he was searching for one of his Blue Ridge Parkway books and I came up from behind him and gave him a long hug.  He said that was a real hug.  I asked him what was an unreal hug and he replied it was one that Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory would give.  He has a point there!

A Little History on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway is the most visited unit of America's National Park System.  It attracts around twenty million visitors each year.

The Blue Ridge Parkway runs for 469 miles. It mostly is part of the Blue Ridge which is a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains.

It is the longest, narrowest National Park in the world.

The road was begun during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt and was originally called The Appalachian Scenic Highway.

In 1936 it was formally recognized as The Blue Ridge Parkway.

A Little About Fancy Gap

Early roads in the mountains often followed established paths such as creeks, deer paths, and Indian trails.  

The curves were hard on wagons so locals began building their own roads. In the mountains these home engineered roads often crossed at the lowest spots called gaps or up the gentlest slope which is called a spur.

There is a legend about how Fancy Gap got it's name.  Ira Blair Coltrane(1815-1984), a self-made engineer helped his grandfather drive loaded wagons up the steep incline. 

The story is that he saw a better route up the mountains across the valley and remarked that it would make a Fancy Road.

In 1849 the Fancy Gap Turnpike was begun and finished in the 1850's.  Coltrane, as a contractor, built the road from Fancy Gap to the foot of the mountain, making the dream of his youth a reality.

I found this information on a great essay by Ron Hall entitled Heaven is a little closer, Fancy Gap, Virginia.  Ron has a lot more interesting facts about Fancy Gap!

I just added a new Kendall Expression painting!  Check it out and others in my Kendall Expressions folder!

Floral Beauty in the Home and IRichyouNot .com...

 FLOWER PAINTINGS

A few days ago a great patron in Indiana purchased a small print of Color Swirl. Color Swirl is one of my favorite Dream paintings and I thought it would be good to blog about flowers and how great floral paintings look in a home setting.

The great thing about my floral paintings for homes is all the color accents I put into them.  I mostly paint wildflowers so there is a pleasing mixture of warm and cool colors in a field of green.  One of my most popular floral arrangements is Wildflower Current.  The continual modulation of color would enhance any home or office setting.

Patrons are always comparing my work to Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Paul Cezanne.  All three artists were colorists and most of their artistic communication is about the wonderful world of color.


LIFE WITH THE BIRD AND WORD MAN

My husband, Clyde Kessler, is always cracking me up with some sort of word play.  He is having quite a lot of success publishing his poetry lately and is always at his naturalist endeavors.

The other day we were talking about all the additions we are practically forced to buy to keep our computer updated and our software working right.  He said it wouldn't surprise him if one day he came across a site with the address IRichYouNot.com. that we have to buy from.

FLOWER FACTS

 Golden seal has been used to cure hemmorhoids, skin eruptions, and dyspepsia.

Indian Paintbrush seeds are so tiny, you can plant a whole acre with several handfuls.  There are 1 million seeds in a pound.

The pioneers called coriopsis tickseed.  They put it in their beds to keep out bedbugs, ticks, and other pests.

Stargrasses were once used to ease chills, fevers, and the pains of colic.  It was mixed with whiskey or brandy which may have been the real source of the cure.

The floral sheath of Skunk Cabbage is so intense that is thaws frozen earth and melts a circle in snow.

Yarrow contains a chemical that speeds the formation of blood clots.  It is said that this was discovered by the Greek hero Achilles.



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40% off large canvas print of popular paintings with a 30 day money back guarantee, including shipping fee!  This week I have beach paintings for sale.