Day 1 at "The Park" -- what a pleasant and pretty little park. It looks like it was plucked right out of a Hallmark Movie.
Before I arrived there, however, I had the very unpleasant experience of having to sit and wait for very lengthy times on Cornville Road. Not once but TWICE, yes they are doing road construction in 2 different places. Well, needless to say I won't be taking that route next week.
Anyway, I finally arrived and found this person walking around almost looking lost.
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| Mike (no Mug 😕) |
Where was your mug Mike, is that why you looked lost? I almost didn't recognize you, except for the big black bag. Oh, and for those of you who are thinking that what's behind him is the Gazebo I mentioned -- seriously?? NO, that's not it.
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| Gazebo |
That's the Gazebo! Ok, so when painting this, you did have to use your imagination somewhat - but a lot of our artists were up to the task as you'll soon see.
As I mentioned, 2 road construction stops - this meant I wasn't exactly the first person to arrive. A few artists were not only in their spots, but already painting or drawing. Here's Bob in his spot.
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| Bob |
And across the street it looks like Sandy's car -- let's see.
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| Sandy |
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| Pat - painting away in her spot |
Also see the picnic bench off to the left with some more of her stuff on it -- there were a few picnic benches like this spread around. That is so great, especially if you like to sit and paint, or just for putting your stuff on while you stand. I also saw this person in the hat painting and at first wasn't sure if it was Suzette as I knew she had to arrive early due to some tight time restrictions she had. But, on closer inspection I realized it was Betty.
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| Betty facing us and talking to Tecla |
So, obviously, Tecla was there.
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| Tecla facing us and Betty hiding under her hat. |
Right after greeting those two I looked to my left and along came Carolyn, still carrying a bunch of things separately - I think she likes the balancing challenge.
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| Carolyn with all her "Stuff" |
This whole time I had been winding my way over to Suzette to say hi, well I finally caught up with her.
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| Suzette at another one of those Picnic Benches! |
Interesting, I just realized she was painting with her sunglasses on. Hmmm, maybe that's why she paints such vivid colors. As you can see the benches were dispersed throughout the park, so multiple different views available.
Oh, here's the full view of the picture of the Gazebo from above -- see how pretty the park looks.
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| Pretty Park - just remember to eliminate the orange cones when painting 😊 |
Of course, there are some artists that would be able to keep those cones in and still have a beautiful painting of a gazebo.
So after deciding on a spot, Sandy went back to her car and got her stuff, and Nori showed up and pretty quickly decided on her spot.
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| (L to R) Sandy, Nori, Bob |
Well, well, well, who do we have here - hmmm Timestamp 9:37 -- guess who:
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| (L to R) Nita, Suzette |
Yes, Nita did show up and when she came over to say hi, she told me her "excuse" for being so late was that she went for a walk with Tecla --- hmmm, now I didn't bother to mention this to her; BUT, as we all know, my first photo of Tecla took place at 9:05 and that was only when I noticed her. She was probably there at 9. I don't know Timestamp Nita, we might just have to call you Nita of Many Excuses 😉, at least for this week. Oh, it's really ok, just glad she showed up. However, it turns out she couldn't stay long. She had to get her "hairs" cut as she put it. She beeped as she drove past at 10. Hard to believe she got anything done. She said she was going to do some sketches. Knowing Nita, this means that she'll probably wind up creating some award winning painting from it.
Well, unfortunately I didn't get a pic of Carolyn in her spot, but one thing I do know, is that she was standing somewhere behind Pat - the painting tells all!!
There were several other people who strolled through the park, some with dogs on leashes, some, just people. They all stopped by to say hi and were quite surprised to find us all there. One is a fellow painter named Jason and he might be joining us in the future. I also talked with another artist who specializes in portraits and ran an art school back in NY.
Well, that was all I had time for since I was running late to start (my excuse was Cornville Rd construction), plus I took time out to chat with the various people who stopped by and 2 hours does go by really fast.
Would you look at what we have here - a Park Bench. Now that looks like a good place to build a gallery, and so we did!
Well, we all gathered and everyone decided to make one long line. Now that's fine, but sometimes, if there's a lot of us, it's a little hard to tell if everyone is really in the picture or not. So... I couldn't tell if Carolyn was in the picture and I said, "Carolyn, WAVE your hand". The response I received nearly bowled me over. I swear there were at least 15 hands all waving at me as I looked at the camera lens. My response, "well, that didn't help me any". Sandy, realized what happened and said "Oh, you said Carolyn", needless to say we all started laughing. Geez, the one time they all attempt to listen. Oh, and the number count -- I'd swear some of them waved 2 hands. Such a fun group!!
So, here we all are - still laughing on 2!
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| Back Row - Mike Middle Row (L to R) Pat, Tecla, Suzette, Betty, Sandy, Nori, Bob, Carolyn Front Row - Me |
Geez, even that photo looks like it was plucked from a Hallmark movie 🤩 - all stars.
Cecilia