A local community organization, Montgomery Art Association, that promotes local independent fine artists, holds a Community “Paint The Town” plein air event in Kensington, MD, scheduled for the Labor Day weekend.

I chose to participate because I enjoy plein air style painting. One of the rules was that each plein air painter needed to find a location in Kensington, MD and paint during 7am to 3pm.

As I seek beauty, one of my philosophies is that one can find beauty anywhere, even in places that might not come across as instantly scenic. Instead, I thought about ‘inner beauty’, such as good work, kindness and community engagement. So, I took myself on a hike in areas where I may not have previously thought to go, on the other side of the railroad tracks, namely the so-called ‘industrial section’. And once I drove over there, I remembered a small business that I had visited for ‘curbside pickup’ during the various shutdowns over the last year, Mastiha Bakery, an Artisan Greek Bakery.

I documented a little bit of my plein air painting during the day. Here is a collection of photos and videos before I turned in my paintings at the end. I’m happy to report that two [edit: three] of my paintings were purchased over the weekend.


How did I find out about Mastiha Bakery?

While working as Director of Communications for Marlow Guitar International, Inc., I took a course in ‘Documentary Film-making for Non-Profits’ from Docs In Progress. We were given a community story assignment and our student project was with Bell Flowers. During the early days of our local pandemic shutdown, Bell Flowers (whom I follow on social media) encouraged folks to support small and local businesses, one of which was Mastiha Bakery.


Getting Ready