The Hidden Gardens Tour was a booming success on Saturday. Zillions of people came, and the weather was perfect. I was supposed to be painting plein air, which means “on site”, but really probably means “OHMYGOSH This Is Impossible”. I did paint but probably more words were spread around than paint was applied. Wow, what a gorgeous place I got to be!
The plan: take photos in advance, and do the first pass over the canvas of about 8 paintings. On site, move about every 45 minutes and work on a new painting. By the end of the day (a five hour time chunk), have 8 paintings almost completed. (Please don’t hurt yourself laughing nor snort coffee out of your nose onto your computer)
The reality: 1 painting finished in advance of the day, 2 sort of finished during the 5 hours. changed location once. Lots of conversations, visiting with old friends and making new ones, lots of just dabbing at the canvas thinking “I’ll just have to fix this later”,
Some people asked if it was my place – I said “In my dreams!”One woman asked me if she could use my bathroom – I said “Sure, but you’ll have to walk a mile to get to it”. It was just a very very nice experience, and when it was over, my feet hurt but my heart felt happy.
The 2 lower paintings got sort of done-ish, and the wisteria was completed last week.
