The hope was that I could finally go out plein-air painting with my oils but the strong winds nixed that idea. The Charleswood group had scheduled to meet at the Forks for 10:00am. Angela and I met earlier at the Conservatory given the too windy day for plein-air painting.
The Conservatory had completely changed since were last there; they had a gazebo set up and a zig zag of stone bordered walkways built. There were tulips, hydrangeas and daffodils all set off by the occasional Japanese Maple. I was intrigued by the Japanese maples ... it's difficult to capture the lacy texture and the contrasting greyed red colors with the bright warm reds of their upper leaves.
Angela left at 11:00 so I decided to rush home, make a sandwich and join up with the Charleswood people. I found Ruth, Ginette, Bernice and Susan all sitting inside the Forks in the marketplace painting a display of shoes and mannequins. I was sitting directly in front of where the shop owner was sitting ... he came out and asked what we were doing. He was worried that we was copying his designs. I assured him that we were just a group of artists who liked to sketch and paint in the summertime outdoors.
After lunch, a few went home and Susan and I chose to stay until 3:00pm. We tried doing the shoes as they were such interesting shapes and colors. Of course, the somewhat bored sales girl kept rearranging the shoes on us. That's what makes sketching and painting from life fun. At the end of our session, I took our water containers and headed outside to empty them. I could see that the security guard out on his smoke break was about to say something to me and I thought, "Oh no .. what am I doing wrong". All he wanted to do was compliment us on the work we had been doing. He said that he had been standing on the second level and was watching us from there. Now isn't that interesting ... he was watching us watching other people that we were trying to sketch.
It was a good day even if I didn't get to paint with my plein-air gear. It was interesting listening to some of the conversation today ... there was some talk of goals for the summer. One person wanted to "paint looser"; another person felt they need to paint less loose. It's a good idea to think about what you want to accomplish when you start a new project or a new phase of your work.
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| The Charleswood Group at the Forks |
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| Japanese Maples at the Conservatory |
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| Shoes --- Same but different |
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| Sketch of outside of buildings at The Forks |
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| Shaft of sunlight through the courtyard |
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