Wet Paint and Approaching the Finish Line in Door County

So we are approaching the finish line.  The paintings have to be turned in by noon today and he's out painting one last one this morning.  Wednesday was fabulous!  We fixed a little breakfast and enjoyed the perfectimundo weather!  Got things together and headed to the Clay Bay Pottery location where we set up and painted.  We moved up onto the little road above the shop and I gave Doug a puzzled look.  "What are you going to paint up here?"  He said, "That tree."  I still gave him the puzzled look.  "Hmmm."  But holy hannah, the dude made it all look pretty awesome!  Check this one out.  It was so fun to still have so many people stop by to watch him paint.

"Still Standing"
10 x 8

This is an old poplar tree that was so cool looking.  Loved it.  We spent some time venturing around and exploring more places and we met up with one of our students and friends, Scott Shearer, who took the rest of the week off to come hang out at the Door County festival!  Good times!!

The evening event was a Sunset paintout at Sister Bay in a marina with lots of boats, lots of people and a rock-solid painting!  There were so many people trying to work their way in to see him paint.  "Who's this guy?  What's your name?  Where you from?  Have you been here before?  

Doug was overwhelmed with the kind comments as there are so many great painters here - he just wanted to paint some good stuff.  Which he's definitely done and the feedback from so many has been great - so if you're one of those who gave us some kind feedback, THANK YOU!!  It was much appreciated!!  The painting started out, as usual, with a dark purple background and the paint came off quickly with a q-tip or a paper towel - wiping away the lighter "values" and starting to "draw" the painting out.  It was fun to see it start to take shape and the painting was actually done in just under two hours.  I love the final 20-30 minutes when he adds the highlights!  This is fabulous!!

"Harbor Traffic"
8 x 10

Seriously beautiful!!  We couldn't get away from the Harbor - it was just so beautiful and so many people to talk to.  Literally hundreds and hundreds of people wanted to talk and look.  We went out with Scott afterwards for some latenight pizza and wings at Husby's!  It was really delish!!  The biggest pizza I've seen in a long time and, as Scott said, Doug didn't even make it past the 50 yard line!  There was lots of leftovers for a few breakfasts to come!!  

Had a "sunrise paintout" the next morning at o-dark thirty at a lighthouse that didn't end up being very inspiring for Doug.  Funny what makes him tick and inspires him.  We ended up walking around a few minutes and then moving on up the coast to Whitefish Bay where it was very quiet and pulled in.  Seriously we were the only ones on this little quiet beach.  Course, most of the beaches are private and only a small portion was actually public so it was probably so quiet because most people are still asleep at 6:30 am!!  

I walked down onto the beach with my chair and ipad to read and Doug set up further up on shore in some brush to paint a little boat and the shoreline.  It was a little breezy and Doug was set up to do a little bigger painting (12x16) so this was going to take a little longer.  At least four hours.  I decide the glare to read was tough with sunglasses so I put on the "Sound of Music" video and started watching / listening to Julie Andrews sing "The Hills Are Alive" when I was startled by what appeared to be manna from heaven!!  Well, no.  But close.  A diet dew appeared right before my eyes!  Scott had found us and I couldn't have been more thrilled!!  

We chilled and hung out and watched Doug paint.  Doug completely zones out with his headphones, ignoring us completely which works great for all of us.  We can talk about him all we want and he doesn't hear a word of it.  

The painting took about 4 hours.  The harbor was absolutely beautiful and I took some fun pictures with his nice camera of the harbor and some cool boats that were out sailing.  So gorgeous in every direction you look.  

Here's the picture he ended up with.  I thought "Breezy Morning" was more what we felt but no, "Windy" was the title.  haha  His prerogative of course!!  And this ended up being one of my favorites. Seriously captured the feel of the day beautifully.  So amazing!

"Windy"
12 x 16

Cleaned things up and went and got some lunch at the Blue Ox with Scott!  Good food, good laughs . . . again!!  

**I digress . . .  I just saw Doug pull in from painting - I'm sitting here at the pic-a-nick table at the front of the campground!  Gave him a big grand wave!!  He waved back!!  Then . . . I realized it WASN'T Doug - cuz Doug pulled in right behind him!  bahaha!!  Friendly folks here in Door County!!  

We took a couple of scenic routes and saw Cave Point which was absolutely gorgeous!  Time for a rest as it got windy.  Came back and framed the pictures up.  Scott came over and had dinner with us - an awesome rib eye steak compliments of Doug the chef-master!  Delish!!  And I destroyed the two of them in a game of Bloody Smash - a "progressive rummy" cardgame.  Not as "easy peasy" as you thought, was it Doug?  Winna Winna, chicken dinna!!  That was me!  

Off to see the last painting!  If Doug likes it, it will get posted.  If he didn't like it so much, you will never see it!!  haha!

Talk soon!!  Wish us luck - we find out tonight how he did compared to competition here in Door County.  Lots of great painters - I'm very proud of him!!

xoxo

J'net