Swoope Pastures—Few places in Virginia are as beautiful as the Shenandoah Valley. Swoope is a very agricultural area of Augusta County. I found this location roaming the countryside after painting in a workshop and was immediately drawn to its pastoral setting. It contained all of the elements that attracts me in a painting motif; grazing farmland, cows cooling in the creek, a humid atmosphere, and far distant mountains, near the Buffalo Gap, in the background.