Blue Ridge Parkway Biltmore Ghost and My Latest Beach Painting

My Artwork

I am very pleased to present the first of my latest shore scenes from beautiful Pawleys Island! I love the shore and we get there once a year. South Carolina has great beach resorts but my favorite is Pawleys Island. One of my best-selling prints, Marsh View at Pawleys Island, is one of my favorite paintings!

Pawleys Island Sunrise on the Sand is a sumptuous look at how the light reflects off the wet sand. In this sunrise there is more morning light on the sand than the water, hence the title.



Pawleys Island Sunrise on the Sand Original 30"x40" Oil Painting $2430




breakerspicopyrightBreakers at Pawleys Island Original Painting has been Sold

The Biltmore Ghost

The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina was home to George Washington Vanderbilt who was one of the heirs to the Vanderbilt industrial fortune. He was born into a mountain of money and never had to work a day in his life.

When he was 26 he traveled to Asheville with his mother and loved the area so much that he purchased 126,000 acres and built a fabulous vacation home there The house is so big that one could sleep in a different bed room each night and not sleep in one twice for a year!

George was an avid collector of books, art, and artifacts and had a huge library. He and his wife had lavish parties and he usually had to be called out of the library to greet guests.

When he died in 1914 the estate passed through his daughter to his grand sons. They decided to open the house to the public. It is the largest privately owned home in America and the setting for a number of successful movies including Being There, starring Peter Sellers.

Today there are reports of ghosts on the premises. George is said to be seen in the library where he often retreated during storms. His wife's voice has been heard asking him to join his guests. The parties seem to still be going on. People sometimes hear laughter and loud voices at the pool which is no longer in use.


I got this ghost story from Stories from The Mountains online publication


Life with The Bird and Word Man - Clyde Kessler

Yesterday I listed books on Appalachia that The Blue Ridge Discovery Center suggests for great reading about this gorgeous area of the world! I forgot to mention A Natural Sense of Wonder by Rick Van Noy includes a chapter on Clyde. Rick Van Noy is very impressed with the naturalist work my husband does and we were pleased he included him in his book!

Here is the list again!

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

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