Plein Air Tuesday - 5/2/23 - Yavapai Vista Day 2

 We will be heading back to Yavapai Vista for Day 2 on 5/2 - meeting once again at 8:15 mostly likely by the bench if not in the parking lot.  Directions to this trailhead are on the right.

This past week was Day 1 and this time I'm not boring you with parking lot photos (mostly because I didn't take any).

However, some of us did meet up in the parking lot and some at the bench and 2 or, I should say, 3 artists I didn't see until it was time for our group pics.

Oops, looks like I'm going back on my word because I just saw this picture and well, since faces are visible it's easier for you to remember who's who and besides there are times when you're doing a studio painting & you might want a group of people to insert into your painting.

Nancy (the Short Timer), Lisa & Sandy

Yes, Nancy is the Short Timer since she'll be moving away before long.  Which reminds me, if you want to join us for lunch on 5/2 even if you can't make it to painting, let me know.  Or if you forgot to let me know you're joining us, please let me know -- I need that headcount!

And here is Nori who looks like she's really walking with a purpose on up the trail that bends around to where we now are at the bench.

Nori

So, the 5 of us decided to leave the bench behind and head on up the trail to the actual point that is Yavapai Vista.

Here we are at the flat part of the vista.

Nori, Sandy in the center and Lisa mostly hidden except for a head and a leg

 Nancy went up just a little bit further and was looking about for a spot.

Nancy

While Lisa was also looking for a spot 

Lisa & Nori

Soon after we found our spots, Chris surprised us with Zoe, a paw painter, no I don't mean she paints paws, although she does do "Paw Prints" in case you're interested 🐾

Front is Chris with Zoe - in the background from L to R 
Lisa, Sandy & Nori - everyone in their spots

We were painting away when much to my surprise, up over the rim comes a smiling person waving - oh wait, it's Time Stamp Nita (9:06 am).  Her claim, of course, was that she'd been there for a 1/2 hour (or perhaps more like 5 - 10 min tops!)

Nita waving, with Lisa on the left, Sandy's empty spot and Nori 

A closer view for Verification purposes 😉

Even though my phone didn't provide any clandestine photos of me 👀 in my spot,  this photo appeared in a message on my phone with thanks to Chris who took it unbeknownst to me.  Thank you Chris!

Me in my spot - gee, I almost look like I know what I'm doing.

I did go up above to get a picture of Nancy in her spot and while there took a picture of spots for your perspective enjoyment!

Well, this first photo is somewhat of an optical illusion, as I can assure you Nancy was not sitting on a slant, but those background rocks really are the way they appear -- hmmmm..

Nancy doing a magic trick in her spot as she paints 

See what I mean - different photo with the same rocks

Perspective shot -- Nancy in foreground
Background (L to R) Lisa, Nori, Sandy w/head down, Chris (my spot you can't see) & Nita (see her hat)

Really, we didn't tell Nancy she couldn't join us, honest, it was her choice -- let's face it, we all do become fascinated by different things and decide that's going to be our challenge for the day.

Being in such close proximity to one another, there were a lot of conversations that went on and stories that were told.  For one, we learned that Lisa was trying a new bug deterrent that was made from various essential oils.  Sandy commented on how abundant the Cliff Roses were this year.

Cliff Rose

She also mentioned how much she liked their scent.  Turns out, their scent was a lot like the bug deterrent Lisa was wearing, but then it was made from essential oils so shouldn't be a surprise.  However, Lisa was a little overwhelmed with the scent after she put it on and had to drive with her windows open.  Just FYI, it was only overwhelming to her as no one else noticed it and as far as the plant itself went, you had to really lean into it and sniff to discover its scent.   But, we do need to find out if it worked as a bug deterrent.

We also were told a funny story about how Nori learned the hard way not to cut or more precisely the wrong tool to use to cut a very large painting done on a board.  Oh, and speaking of large paintings, one of Chris's full sheet sized watercolor paintings sold at SAC -- very nice, Congrats Chris!

On one of Sandy's jaunts down to the parking lot, we learned that Robin, Hamilton and LeAnne were also there.

Right on schedule we packed up and headed back down the trail where we found the trio I just mentioned waiting for us.

(L to R) Chris (got there ahead of the rest), Robin, Hamilton (the other paw painter) & LeAnne

We used our favorite bench to build our gallery and only had to do a little shifting of paintings to make it work while implementing various clips and rocks as restraining implements.  Those paintings can be ornery. 

And, if you're wondering where that building in the 4th painting in the center on the first row came from, well, think about the parking lot and there's only one building that you see.  But Robin sure did make it look pretty!

After a little debate we decided not to take a pic into the sun, so we got ourselves set up in front of our paintings and all smiled on 2!

Front Row - Zoe & Me
(L to R) Chris, Nita, LeAnne, Nori, Lisa, Sandy, Nancy, Robin & Hamilton

In case you were wondering, a good time really was had by all, just ask Zoe & Hamilton because they even smiled without knowing how to count down from 3!

Hope to see you next week!

Cecilia

Plein Air Tuesday - 4/25/23 - Day 2 at The End of Verde Valley School Rd.

But, first our plans for 4/25/83 -- We are going to Yavapai Vista Trailhead and since the sun is rising earlier, we'll start heading out earlier too.  This time we'll just up it by 15 minutes and make it 8:15 am as the meet up time. 

You'll find directions on the right and we can meet at the start of the trails or by the bench.

Ok, time for the pretty pictures.  I arrived and saw that Suzie and Sophie were already heading out and just as I was ready to head down I saw that Lisa & Betty drove in.

Betty & Lisa

And I just found this photo - which is funny because this was an unintended snapshot, but I'm pretty sure that's my shadow (guess my phone decided I needed to be included).

My Shadow courtesy of my phone with a button that has a mind of  it's own

Nancy arrived shortly after and as you can see, she learned her lesson from last week and is not all in Black -- that sun gets mighty warm, either that or she resolved her problems with the law 😉

Nancy & Lisa

Nancy talking to Suzie and Lisa talking to Sophie

See all the SAND in that photo.  I've never seen sand like that there.  It was like that all over the place, I even took some home with me - unintentionally, of course.  My sneaks were loaded with it, ugh!

Sandy & Ed (surprise, surprise) came along.  We haven't seen Ed in quite some time.  But these earlier hours make it easier for him to join us.

Sandy

Ed

Then at Time Stamp 8:54, "she" arrived.  That's Nita and the lady in pink that arrived in her orange pumpkin (umm I mean car), Chris.  Haven't seen Chris in quite some time too.  What a treat to have her and Ed show up.

Chris & Nita

Nita decided to come over and show us her masterpiece very early.

Nita's Masterpiece???

I wonder if she used invisible paint, maybe invisible ink?  Perhaps when she does her "spritzing" something will appear.  But, now that I think of it, wouldn't that be a real fun thing to have, invisible paint that shows up when you spritz it.  Can you imagine the pieces we would create!

Below you can see some visitors, Sophie doing some trick with her tripod and Suzie in her spot with Sandy behind her in her spot and seated on the right is Betty in her spot.  My spot was off behind and to the right of Betty.

Both Lisa and Nancy went further on down the trail into the weeds.

(L to R) Lisa and Nancy in their spots plus Lisa's Stuff all over the ground.

Ed in the foreground with Chris (pretty in pink) off to the left and way in the background the group from a few pics above.

Nita in her spot

Nita pretty much opted for the same spot she had last week.  Although you can see that the water has receded somewhat.

When it came time to wrap up, I discovered that LeAnne had arrived at some point, she just never made it up to my spot.  She said she wound up waiting about 10 minutes for a parking spot, but before doing so she drove down to see if we were there.  Then she decided to go back and wait for the spot.  Hey, she had an even shorter amount of time to paint, yet she managed to get something done.  We all have managed to  whip things out pretty quickly, granted they're not all the masterpieces Nita displayed above (the one you couldn't see), but we do get paint put to paper or canvas.

Oh, I failed to mention, Suzie & Sophie packed up their toys and left early again, so if you're trying to figure out which paintings are theirs, they're not there.  -- gee, their, they're & there right after one another, glad no ones trying to teach me English by reading this post.

Well, here we all are minus the 2 that left - so with a smile on 2 it's 3, 2 click

Front Row - L to R - Ed, Sandy, Nancy, Betty, Nita, Chris, LeAnne
Back Row - Lisa & Me

Well, that's it for this past week.  Very pretty day and a lot of fun.  Gee, in looking at Cathedral Rock in the photo, no wonder we all have such a tough time trying to get the perspective right -- it doesn't look like it's as high up as we know it really is.

Till next week!

Cecilia

Plein Air Tuesday - 4/18/23 -- End Of Verde Valley School Road - Day 2

We're to going to return to the End of Verde Valley School Rd just so we can give it yet another try.  It seems no matter how many times we go there, it's always good to go back.  So we'll be meeting at 8:30 am on 4/18/23.   You read that correctly -- 8:30 -- since we're now at the point where it is getting a lot hotter, it was decided it'd be best to move up the start time.

Directions are on the right.

This past week the location brought with it a lot of surprised faces.  You can actually hear the water rushing as you're walking down the road from the parking lot.  I arrived early and walked around for a bit and took this video that shows something I've never seen before on Oak Creek.

Oak Creek Rapids - Oh My!!

The first two people that I saw when I did get there at 9:00 though were Christine, who already was busy setting up and Suzette who had also just arrived and they were chatting.

Suzette in the pink hat and Christine in yellow

I went over to join them and as we were talking I was looking around and noticed this by Suzette's feet.

 

Yup, that's a shell -- right there sitting on the red rock.  Can't say that I ever saw one there before.   But, then later on as discussions were going on I did hear someone say that they'd been there around 7 am one morning and saw the herons flying about.  I suppose it's likely they deposited it there after they were finished eating.  

Ok, back to people, I am a bit out of sequence here as I actually saw Christine & Suzette BEFORE taking that video above.  When I had just finished taking that video though, Nancy came down that way to join me in scouting about for a spot.

Nancy

Here's a photo of the building that's across the creek.  Ok, you do have to look through the trees, shrubs, etc to see it.  Also, I'm not really sure what it is, interesting though.  Also, as I mentioned, no one will be crossing the creek any time soon.

This is where people would usually cross.

Suzette opted for a Spot on the rocks near Christine.

At this point more people started showing up:

Lisa, Nori, Betty (hiding behind Lisa) & Sandy

And, all of a sudden we had a lot of people gathering in one location

But that wasn't everyone yet, because we've got little miss Time Stamp worthy Nita who came along -- Time Stamp 9:53:48 -- hey, not too bad Nita, less than a 1/2 hour late.

Time Stamp Nita

But wait, there's more -- wow, someone was later than Nita, but only by 1 minute.  It's Robin & Hamilton

Robin and Hamilton's Stuff -- I think he's still in the car.

I forgot to take a photo of Hamilton. For those of you who don't know who he is, you'll see him in the group photo.  He'll be the one all in white except for the black button nose and black eyes.

Nori opted for a spot looking back at everyone who were actually facing her.  How nice for everyone to provide people for their paintings.

Nori

There was also another person whose photo I didn't take.  Sorry about this, but you will see her in the group shot.  Her name is Mary and she's new -- so everyone remember to say hi to Mary!!  She's a friend of Nori and discovered the challenge of painting plein air with acrylics.  Hopefully, she'll keep coming back!

And, here's what Nori was looking at

People in their Spots -- If you look way in the back, you can even see Nita in her spot and I was next to her (not in the pic though as I'm taking it)

And, another view of the Group.  At this point it was close to wrap up time and as you can see, some visiting was going on and if you look close you can even see Nita way in the background.  That red on the left is Hamilton's stuff.

Oh wait - here's a better one of Nita in her spot.

Nita

Point of note:  When she sat down there she pulled out her breakfast and promptly placed it down on the red rocks.  I pointed out to her that there were ants about - oh dear!! She changed her mind about that real quick and fortunately another stool was provided for her use.

So we got together and fortunately our usual shelf still existed for us to build our gallery on.  Not everyone was completely finished, but we all had enough photos to finish up if we wished at home in the shade.

We all smiled on 2 -- although a few shots were taken, we originally had a hider.  It was Nancy, the lady in black!  Hmmm, black cowboy hat, weren't they always the one that was the "outlaw", perhaps she was trying to hide from the law -- well, Sandy got her to show her face.

Front Row bending down - Betty & Me 
L to R everyone else - Nita, Suzette, Robin, Hamilton (told you black button nose), Lisa, Christine, Sandy,  Nancy (the Outlaw), Nori & Mary (new person)

Well, then we really did pack up all our stuff and headed on home.

Yes, it was a fun and painting challenged morning -- but plan on doing it all again next Tuesday!  Hope to see you there.

Cecilia

Plein Air Tuesday Surprise - 4/11/23 -- End of Verde Valley School Road

 Ok, I'm sure you're wondering why it's Plein Air Tuesday "Surprise", well that's because I'm changing it up from what we originally thought.  But, believe me, I have a GOOD reason.  Here's a sneak peak:

What's that raging river that guy (my husband, Dave) is looking at???  Well, how about that's Oak Creek and while I knew that the terrain would've changed after those tremendous rains and flooding we had, I was still surprised by this.

I was at the gym on Tuesday morning and a guy told me he went down to the end of Verde Valley School Rd and couldn't believe how different it looked.  So, needless to say,  I had to go check it out.

My first view of the changes is this picture below.  It was taken right at the very end of the road where that  fencing is that we walk through.

Gee, that water looks awfully close, in fact you usually can't see the water at all from here.  I'm sure it will eventually recede some, but it will look very different from what we were used to.  And, I thought we should really see it as it is now.  

So, we'll meet at 9:30 at the End of Verde Valley School Road on 4/11/23.  Directions are on the right.

Here's a little video I took that morning - oh, by the way, it's a good thing that day was canceled.  It was FREEZING and very very WINDY.

I have a feeling we won't be seeing people wading across from the other side any time soon.

Hope to see you Tuesday!

Cecilia