Plein Air Tuesday - 10/10/23 - Schnebly Hill Road - Day 1

 

Chris & Suzette

Guess everyone was anxious to head out and paint this day as Suzette and I arrived at 8:42 to find a few people waiting for us.  Above you see that Chris was already there, but wait there's more ...

Denise & someone new behind her

Well, that's a real cheerful greeting from Denise.

Ok, back to the new person behind her.  That's Wylie (and I'm really not sure on the spelling of her name - so hope I got it right).  Turns out Wylie is a temporary neighbor of Denise and is here to plein air paint, so she might be joining  us for a few weeks.  Here's a better pic of her, so if you see her say Hi!

Wylie

Then as we were all talking Bob came walking over, also all smiles.

Bob

Ok, so you can't really see his smile in that pic, but he was!!  He's always so good about holding his palette flat like that - bet the colors look good inside too, nothing running together there.

I knew that Time Stamp Nita was going to be arriving a little later because she sent me a text at 8:35 saying she'd be there around 9:15 - which since she called the time of her arrival, it meant she wouldn't be late (for her anyway). 

Oh, as a complete aside, here's a little  reminder/warning to those of you that carpool.  As I mentioned earlier, Suzette and I arrived together and Suzette drove.   Now, I always have my pass with me when I drive because I keep it in my car and even if I take my husband's car, his pass is in that car.  Well, turns out that's not the case for Suzette.  We arrived to discover she did not have a pass which meant I had to go and buy one.  The machines DO NOT TAKE CASH.  Ok, no problem, I'll charge it -- well you've never seen a pickier machine.  You have to be very careful about how you put the card in and out - no jiggling of any kind allowed, otherwise it keeps saying that the card wasn't accepted or some such nonsense.  It has to be a very smooth move of the card into/from the machine in order for it to be able to read it.  So, after about 4 tries, I received a pass.  

By this time, it was just me and Suzette as everyone else dispersed to parts unknown.  We each went in separate directions and this also meant that since I was alone, I didn't leave my stuff to go wandering and taking pics.  Therefore, you'll see this post is clearly lacking in photos including hardly any photos of people in spots.

When I finished my painting, it was early so I went to see if I could find those hiding artists.  The first one I saw was Chris.

Crystal clear, right?  I'm sure you all guessed immediately it was her.

Hey, I did refer to them as hiding artists.  Alright, I guess this makes it a bit more obvious.

Chris for sure

The next artist I found was Suzette -- looks like she found the one spot in the shade.  Did I mention it got hot.

What do you mean you can't see her?

She's that white spot underneath that tree in the distance that has the long shadow.  I'll start walking closer.

See, now it's obvious it was really a plein air artist.

Suzette

How about that, it wasn't a solid white top but a striped one.  

She was just finishing up too so I waited and we both started to walk back up to the parking lot.  I had mentioned that I wanted to see if I could find Nita and look at what happened as we got closer to the top.

Nita - Time Stamp 10:33

Well, she told me that Chris did a real time stamp for her and it was 9:16, so right on time for her since she said she'd be there around 9:15.

When we found Nita she was talking to another artist.

Suzette, Nita, another artist

Ok, so I know you're all thinking that's Denise -- am I right??  How about, it's someone we didn't even know.  Her name is Laura and she loves to go plein air painting and does so while her son goes off and hikes at whatever trail they're at.  She paints in oil and from what I saw of the painting she was working on, she's a really wonderful artist.  Since she's living in the village she might be joining us from time to time.  So everyone say hi to Laura!

Well, as we were all starting to gather in the parking lot I received another surprise.

LeAnne with a bright smile

I did a double take when she started walking over.  I had no idea she was there even though she arrived  right at the scheduled time of  9.  I felt bad I hadn't waited in the parking lot for her.  Next time if that happens she's promised to text me though, that way we can find her.

Well, after a LOT of shuffling, the gallery was determined to be completed and photo ready or shall we say, as ready at it was going to be under the circumstances, there seemed to be a lot of concern about the lighting.

Then, after all was said and done, the tripod went up, the camera (phone) affixed and as always, we all smiled on 2.

(L to R - Back) Wylie, Chris, Denise, LeAnne, Suzette, Bob
Nita, Me

What a pretty setting, we sure know how to pick them!

See you before the month is over.

Cecilia

Plein Air Tuesday - Slide Rock Fest 10/7/23

 

There was even a celebrity there!

And if you look in the background you'll see that Carolyn is sitting behind him painting.  

Well, my original intent was to NOT do a post about the event.  Sooo,  I didn't take a lot of pictures.  But, in reviewing what I do have, I thought, well there's enough there to do something small.  However, all participants aren't included in the photos because I didn't take that many 🥴

There were 10 of us altogether.  Besides myself, Sandy, Suzette, Mike, Nita, Chris, Carolyn, Tecla, Denise & Betty all participated.  

Tecla did take this one of me with the big guy and once again, if you look close, you'll see some familiar faces in the background.

Me, Smokey, background is Mike and further back is Chris (Photo by Tecla)

Here's a zoomed in area where you can better see Mike & Chris and alongside Chris are Mike's paintings lined up on the ground.  Oh the far left is a scarecrow.

Front - Mike who's seated
Background - Mike's paintings, Chris Painting and random strangers

While the first thing in the morning it was down right cold, that changed dramatically after an hour or so.  Next year if we do this, I'll have to remember that, because my thin little orange hoodie wasn't enough to start the day.

I don't have pictures of anyone's finalized paintings but I can tell you that both Mike & Sandy incorporated this wagon into theirs.

Nita had a very attractive setup as she brought along a lot of stuff to sell.  Here she is with her hubby, Jerry.

Nita & Jerry

In anticipation of the sun, she set up under the apple tree and, well, we all wound up gravitating towards that same tree, with Chris being set up right next to her, and once again we have background people.

(L to R) Chris, Denise, Nita & Jerry

As I mentioned, almost all of us wound up in that general chatting area - actually the only two who went elsewhere were Suzette & Betty.  Being so close, there was a lot of chatting. 

As Sandy pulled out her little wc palette, she mentioned how she had thoroughly cleaned it out and reloaded it.  Ok, so you're thinking, seriously, this is what you're telling us about.  But, you have to see how pretty it looks.  Check it out.

Don't they look scrumptious!  See what I mean -- definitely photo worthy.

Here's one that Sandy took (she was standing right next to me).  It's Mike painting and that beige head is me and background left is Tecla.

(L to R) Tecla, Mike, Me (Photo by Sandy)

There were a lot of people wandering past and several fun conversations were had.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of these 4 girls that stopped to talk with us while they were on their break as volunteers from selling apples.  They're senior officers of the local chapter of the FFA (Future Farmers of America).  It was so interesting talking with them.  We were all so impressed with them and wish them the best of luck with their futures.

Here's a bunch of people.  I think we were all surprised by the large numbers that kept coming in and wandering around.

Don't know any of them -- oops, the girl in all blue is one of the girls from the FFA

As it got hotter out, most of us who had placed ourselves in the sun decided to start huddling under Nita's apple tree.  It worked out great  as those trees do sprawl out quite a bit and it was really a lot of fun for all of us to be able to spend that much time together and just be able to chat, relax and enjoy ourselves.

We all arrived there mostly by 7:30, and discovered that throughout the day they had food and beverages for us which was really nice.  Although, several of us had brought our own food.  It was nice to be able to head down and get some cold bottled water.  A few grabbed bags of chips claiming they needed the salt, sure that was the reason 😉.  We started packing up at 2:00 and by 2:10 we were heading out.

People and Suzette heading out

But, from the above photo you can see that there were still people coming in.  Here are a few other random photos I took of some apple pickers.

Really was a fun day.  Maybe next time I'll take a few more  pics, but that's it for this year.

Cecilia

Plein Air Tuesday - 10/3/23 - L'Auberge

Oak Creek at L'Auberge

This day required a preliminary spot to meet so that we could then all arrive at L'Auberge at the same time.  So, we all met as planned with Bob, who was the person that presented us with this opportunity, arriving first with Lisa and Betty.  But before I show you them, I want to thank Bob again and also thank Linda Goldenstein of Goldenstein Gallery who assisted Bob in making this happen.  Note clicking on the link to Goldenstein Gallery will open that page in a new window.

Ok, back to just getting there.  Bob, was patiently waiting.

Bob is in the black and white shirt

And, while you really can't see this but, beside Bob is Betty, Lisa, Candy & Pat (this was a first time for both Candy and Pat - therefore, they're the Newbies).

Arriving with me was Suzette:

Suzette

Denise & Mike showed up as did Mike's mug (check his right hand).

(L to R) Nori's Leg, Suzette, Denise, Mike's Mug, Mike

Sandy also arrived.

(L to R in a zig zag pattern)
Candy, Bob, Sandy, Lisa, Nori, Pat

Then David arrived and also Christine.

(L to R) Suzette, Mike, David

Christine

A couple of others arrived but no pics of them, we'll have to catch them later.  Because we needed to get moving and just a short ride away we found ourselves at L'Auberge where we were very cheerily greeted by Linda.  I tried to get a picture of her face forward, but sometimes I'm just not fast enough.

(L to R) Sandy, Lisa, Cynde, Linda, Suzette

I didn't get any photos of L'Auberge itself.  But, it is a very charming place and the restaurant (which we had to walk through to get where we were going) is really very nice.  Makes you want to make plans to go there.

We headed on down to the creek and all of us did a lot of balancing on rocks.  Most of us selected a rock or 2 to use as spots.

(L to R) Suzette, Lisa, Denise, Sandy

Bet you thought I was kidding about the balancing bit,  no, navigating these rocks had its own special challenge.  But, I have to really hand it to Denise because check this out.

(L to R) Cynde, Denise, Christine

Ok, so, it's not obvious to you at the moment, so I'll zoom in for you to see.  But, before I do that, check out Denise's tripod -- balanced on not one but 2 different rocks.  Ok, now for what I was talking about concerning Denise.

Denise was wearing flip flops

Yes, it was a challenge for the rest of us in our sneakers, but Denise did it in Flip Flops!!!!  Boy, am I impressed.

(L to R) Cynde, Denise, Me, Sandy -- background Christine (Photo by Lisa)

These next few are also courtesy of Lisa -- thanks Lisa!

Bob (Photo by Lisa)

Nori (Photo by Lisa)

Suzette (Photo by Lisa)

Suzette & Lisa

Here's Betty in her spot, once again a setting pretty enough for it's own painting.

Betty

Mike wandered around on the rocks with us for a bit and for the longest time I couldn't find him.  But, finally I saw a hint of a blue shirt back up on one of the terrace areas with the table and chairs.

Mike

Oh, Lisa also got this one of David in his spot.

David (Photo by Lisa)

It also took a bit of searching but I finally found the Newbies, Candy & Pat in their spots, although their backs are to us.

Pink hat is Pat, Candy

There's also a stairway to Candy's right.  I think they came down that way and didn't traverse the rocks.  Smart move because I didn't wander on down to where they were from the rocks above, for sure I probably would've done a face plant.

When it was time to wrap up I headed up to where Mike was hiding out and at least got a better photo of him in his spot.

Mike

We managed to put together a gallery using the wood fence and some tape.  The sun caused a few paintings to take on a different look as it shone through them.  But, as always they all looked great and more importantly, we had FUN painting them.  We'll all be happy to go back there at the end of the month.  In the meantime though we'll be heading elsewhere.

Ok, the group photo took a lot of maneuvering around to get into place.  Besides that, trying to get everyone to interrupt their conversations long enough to smile on 2 was no small feat.  You'll see that there are 2 fellows in the back row that are barely visible -- turns out 6' isn't quite tall enough because all you can see is the tops of their heads and eyes.

Yikes, let's see if I can do this - going back to front and left to right
Mike, Bob (both are WAY back)
Suzette, Nori, Denise, Candy, Sandy David
Cynde, Me, Pat, Betty
Lisa

One of the things I failed to mention was the noise level.  You would not believe how noisy the creek is at this point.  The little water falls it was creating while rushing through those rocks and the speed with which it was flowing being the cause.  Also the cicadas kept chiming in and there apparently were quite a few of them.  Surprisingly though where Candy and Pat the 2 Newbies were, it was quieter.  So, definitely the fault of the water splashing through the rocks was the cause.  But what a pretty spot!!

Cecilia