Day 3 began waking up to the beautiful vista that we all thought might be a dream--but no, for real! Nice!! We headed out onto the desert where the red cliffs could be found in every direction. Everyone scttered and found their spot and set up their easels.
Some of the students took on big vistas, others a close-up of a tree. We were thrilled to have Greg Stocks with us as well. He brings a great talent to the group and it was fun to watch a pro knock one after another out of the ballpark. 
We pulled out the cooler and made some lunch with bagels, cream cheese, ham and turkey. Kitty found her new favorite snack, breakfast bar, dessert, whatever you want to call it - Nature Valley sweet and crunchy granola bars are her new friend. Cup of coffee comes first, then the Nature Valley Bar! Good to go!! we will be shipping those to you on a regular basis, Kitty!
Back to the Rim Rock for a quick rest and refueling. Well at least for most of us. Kitty and Shannon stayed to finish their paintings, weathering the clouds that kept teasing us, coming in and out, casting shadows, then they were gone. The challenges of this plein air stuff is exhausting! Just as Kitty and Shannon returned, we were ready to head out again for a demo from Master of "He makes it look so easy!" Here's some progress pics of his demo he did just a mile or so from the Rim Rock.
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I'll take the opportunity, while you're studying these progress paintings, to just say how very patient Doug is with me. |
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I have such a hard time containing myself when it gets super quiet and everyone is intently watching his every stroke. I have to chime in with something like "yep, that's exactly what I would have done," or some joke that generally are ridiculously funny and Doug takes it all in stride. |
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He seriously does make this look so easy. The weather conditions being so fickle - which has turned out to be the biggest challenge of the whole trip! Sun, where are you?? About this time, I remember to text everyone the menu for dinner and all at once, "tweet, beep beep, ring ring" everyone's phones start going off, interrupting one of those quiet, intent moments. I said "never mind everyone, it's just a text from me!" Everyone still checks. mmmm pizza for dinner . . . |
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We are paying the price for these brilliant colors that are on the mountains. |
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Finished. Serious sky. You could feel the nip in the air as the slight breeze whipped at the paper towel and the handy-dandy plastic garbage bag hanging on each of the easels. |
The students decided to tackle their own painting, braving the weather and change of shadows. Kitty to the left turned out a nice piece and Shannon, being the visionary that she is, mixed an incredible mint green that, within 20 minutes of her mixing it, and then wiping it clean, was the perfect match for the brilliant shrubs as the sun, set low in the west, peaked out from under the clouds and set the whole vista on fire. She's visionary, I tell you. She saw it coming and we were all pretty bummed that she had wiped it clean before it finished her masterpiece! The camera's were snapping left and right capturing the amazing rocks for the brief 2 or 3 minutes as the sun set. Dinner was delish at the Red Cliffs pizza hangout there on main street in Torrey. Scott got lured into the monster double cheeseburger while Kitty went for the pepperoni pizza! Everything was mounds more than we SHOULD have eaten, but of course, we did our best to clean our plates!
I could hardly wait for Day 4 to begin, ready to share "my Boulder Mountain" with everyone. I knew the colors would be brilliant . . . it's never let me down before!
So Day 3 wrapped up . . . Jack, Shannon's husband, took more pictures than I've probably ever taken in my life and Blair, getting to get in a little fishing in between painting sessions. Everyone pretty wowed by the change of landscape from one day to the next.
And the fun . . . oh yeah, I don't really need to mention it, but, yeah . . . tons of fun along the way. What a great group of people. Thrilled to have made some very cool new friends.
J
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