Plein Air Tuesday - Verde River Access - Day Two -- 2/20/24

 Suzette and I arrived early and chatted until we saw Betty pull in.

Suzette

Betty

And, yes, if it looks like they were facing one another and talking, that's because they were.  Then right after that 3 more cars arrived all following directly behind one another.

The next 3 cars that showed up together + one more 

The fact that they were that close was just a coincidence as the time at that point was 9:20, so 10 minutes earlier than planned.  Now let's see who the occupants of those vehicles were.

Pink hat is Pat and Mike with his MUG

I don't know if we should give Mike's Mug a name or if "Mike's Mug" is sufficient.   But then what else could we call it that would be unique - Hot Stuff?  Oh, but I guess Mike showing up with Hot Stuff may not sound too good, hmmm.  I guess Mike's Mug it'll remain.  Now, on to that 3rd vehicle - the red truck and its driver, that was Kristen.

Kristen

But wait, there's more!  Right after that another car pulled in with Christine being the driver.

Christine

Christine has been very busy of late, working a lot in her studio and also teaching workshops down in Scottsdale.  But, she clearly took the time out to read this blog as she showed up with an answer to last week's question and then also answered another question she heard posed by Betty.  The first was about that cement block we used to prop our paintings on last week.  -- It turns out it was installed as a place for someone in a wheelchair to be able to sit while there.  The question Betty had wondered about had to do with the concern that they were doing improvements to this area and would that mean it would become a fee area.  The answer was, No, or at least not now.  The road down was the end of the improvements and the rocks that they placed around the parking area outlining the space are all that will be happening.

Oh, one more thing about Christine, we all know that she is a renowned pastel artist.  I've also posted links multiple times to magazine articles about her and her work as well as a youtube interviews she had with a magazine publisher.  Well, in addition to all of that, she was recently contacted by a printer for art galleries that want to be able to print and sell verified copies of her work.  So, another congratulations to Christine for once again being recognized for her beautiful artwork and achievements.

Ok, back to the group that had arrived.  After chatting in the parking lot for a bit, we headed out down the sandy path.

 

(L to R) In the trees is Betty, Pink Hat Pat and Mike

Mike checked out the spot that's off to the right when you get there.

Mike

He didn't stay there -- we'll have to find him later.

Betty & Suzette, however, went out to that point where it splits off and there's the little waterfall

(L to R) Betty and Suzette

And, as I was coming back from taking that picture to look for my spot I saw someone else who's been missing for a few weeks.

Carolyn

It was Carolyn, and while you can't see it in this picture, she had a big smile on her face as always.  Speaking of smiles, check this one out.

LeAnne

That's LeAnne, she also always has a big smile, so cheerful looking.  I really like the look of her walking downhill in this photo.  Her back is so straight that the downhill movement is really pronounced.

Kristen and Christine picked spots near one another.  While this may not be obvious to you, if you look directly behind Kristen, you'll see a hat (that's Christine) and there's Mike heading off down to parts unknown.

Mike walking off, Christine's Hat & tripod and Kristen with the red chair

Carolyn and I picked spots next to one another.

Carolyn in her spot

and then I got another surprise.  Kris showed up - another smiling happy face.

Kris (with a K 😉)

Tecla also came by, but she didn't stay long, but good to see her just the same. 

Tecla - she's talking to Carolyn

Wow, check out how colorful Tecla was -- she's wearing all the primaries.

Oh, I just found a better picture of Christine in her spot along with Kristen and Pink Hat Pat in their spots.

(L to R) Kristen, Christine and Pink Hat Pat

Ok, I need to see if I can go find Mike, I did see the direction he headed in, let's give it a shot.   After walking for a bit I found him, see.

I swear it's Mike

Ok, so, that might be a little difficult for you to actually see him in his spot.  But it's him -- I'll get a little closer.

Mike in his spot

Oh, and his view -- well if you scroll back to the beginning of this post, you'll see the top picture is what he was looking at.  You can go ahead and take a look, I'll wait ...........

Oh, good, I see you found where you left off, let me go on.   If you can believe I was surprised that there was still someone else who showed up that I missed.  It was the "New Girl," Anna.

Anna in her spot

How about that and it turns out she was behind Betty --  if you look to the upper left of the photo you'll see Betty.  So, Anna is only with us for a short while as she didn't meet us until close to the time they'd be heading back to their other home.  But, don't worry, she'll be back in December.  Anna, glad you've been able to join us!

Oh, I also just found LeAnne in her spot - she's chatting with Suzette - guess we were getting close to gallery time.

(L or R) LeAnne, Suzette

Then I  found Kris with a K in her spot

Kris in her spot

And, while I was searching I did discover that Tecla actually did seek out a spot for a bit.

(L to R) Tecla, Carolyn

So, at 11:29 a gust of wind blew up.  Perhaps you're wondering why I know that time so precisely?  How about we had just finished building the Gallery and before I could take a photo the gust blew it down.  So, at 11:31:20 it was rebuilt and I was able to get this photo.  But before you look at it let me tell you that since it was so long, I then also broke it down into multiple shots.  So keep reading after the next photo and you'll find photos of a few at a time looking a bit bigger.

Ok, now for the bigger pics taken from that same lineup.  Some are duplicated in following photos.

Based on the count and assigning pictures to people, someone didn't put their's in.  I think it was a sketch and maybe she thought it wouldn't be seen.  Anna had brought along her one from last week because she completed it at home, so she has 2 in.

Well, we did manage to cram together for a group photo and this time I had the iPhone holder which did make it easier.  So, we were all given the opportunity to smile on 2 (multiple times).

(L to R and In and Out)
Christine, Kris, LeAnne, Pat, Mike, Betty, Kristen, Carolyn, Anna, Suzette, Me

Did I mention it was a beautiful day -- it got pretty warm as you can tell by the pushed up sleeves and everyone was wearing a hat.  It won't be long before those gray barren trees will be sporting green.

That's it for this week.  Until next time...

Cecilia

Plein Air Tuesday - Verde River Access Point - 2/13/24

 

Verde River (boy isn't that the truth)

Do you see the "GREEN" in the river - it's real, that photo was not enhanced.  Amazing isn't it!

Ok, guess I'm getting ahead of myself as clearly I didn't see that prior to seeing who had arrived in the parking lot.  

This day brought a "new girl" with it - we seem to get a lot of those.  This is Anna and she's the person I mentioned in my last post whose husband stopped to ask us if his wife, who is an excellent watercolorist, could join us.  They are part-timers as they have another home someplace for the warmer weather and will be heading there soon.

Anna

I know, not a great photo, but sometimes that happens.  She happened to have just been talking with Pat when I pulled up.

Pat

I knew that Lisa and Betty would also be joining us and just as I was telling Pat and Anna that, they pulled in.

Betty with the big bag hanging off her and Lisa

As you can see they're also doing some work on the parking area, I don't know for sure but guess they're going to pave it.   They already had paved the drive down to it and leveled it off some, so while still a down hill, no where near as steep as before and that big pot hole is gone.

So we headed out to the water to see what changes occurred since our last visit there.  This space seems to always have the most dramatic changes and it didn't fail us this time either, evidenced by the green grass or moss under the water in the picture above.

This is the section where it breaks off and creates that island

Unfortunately, I didn't take a good picture of the island, but you can see it on the right side of the below picture.

Pat found her spot looking at the area where the water looks so still before it branches off toward that little island and goes around and back to join the main part.

Pat in her spot

Lisa with her little pink palette went off to find her spot (look at what she's carrying in her left hand)

Lisa and her little pink palette

Yes, that itty bitty palette, but look at what's on her back!  Funny, no space for the little pink.  (I know, I know, she wants t make sure it stays flat as obviously she keeps her watercolor paints moist.)

Anna found a tree she was compelled to paint and quickly settled into her spot.

Anna in her spot

Anna did not have a plein air setup, so brought along a couple of folding chairs and bags of stuff.  It worked out quite well for her.

Anna's view

Wait'll you see her painting!!

So, while I was still debating I saw someone coming through the trees.

Kristen

It was Kristen.  I didn't know she would be joining us.  Turns out her ability to join us is always a last minute thing -- a 3 year old grandchild is involved -- she says she's incredibly active 😊, she did smile when she said that.  I suspect a 3 year old is keeping her and her husband quite busy, so getting away isn't always too easy.

But, she didn't waste any time looking around but quickly found her spot so she could take advantage of that time to paint.

Kristen

Betty found her spot overlooking that Green River, or in other words or another language, the Verde River

Betty in her spot

and, she wasn't far from Lisa

(L to R) Betty, Lisa in her spot

There were a number of visitors there, young and old.  Teens and parents etc.  But this one girl had her hands full.  Two little ones.  Oh, that reminds me, while we were all bundled up, check her out.

Young mom with 2 little ones

You see a hint of blue through the weeds, that was on of her little boys.  When I walked past he was busy gnawing on her sunglasses -- she said, "anything to keep him from putting sand in his mouth".  But, they were clearly all having fun.  There were also a number of other people that wandered through, I didn't take their pictures though.

This was my spot - overlooking what looks like muck. 

My spot

But what I was really looking at is the view in the photo above that shows up right after we left the parking lot.  Go on back and look, I promise not to go anywhere.  You'll just have to scroll down to the photo that says "My spot" 😉 

As you know, I seem to rush through painting, so, I started to wander to chat with who was there, Kristen came along with me because she already did 2 paintings and wanted to take some time to see everyone's spot and what they were working on.  She said the time we spend looking at them in our little gallery is never enough.  Lisa finished her painting and thought we were going to use Anna's tree.

But that spot while quite interesting, would've been difficult to place all our paintings on.  So we opted for that cement platform thing that's there (what is that for anyway - anyone know??)

Gallery - not good lighting - sorry!

There was a breeze that kept knocking the paintings down, no sooner you'd get one up, another would fall.  Sorry about the poor lighting and shadows being cast.  Perhaps next weeks gallery setup will be better.  

So, besides the fighting with the falling paintings, cast shadows and poor lighting; it turned out I couldn't find my phone holder for the group photo.  So instead we just gathered together as best we could within my arms reach out and pretty much laughed.

Peaking from the Rear (L to R) Anna, Kristen
(L to R) Pat, Me, Lisa, Betty

Hey, at least we all made it into the photo!

Till next week!

Cecilia

Plein Air Tuesday - 1/30/24 -- Yavapai Vista, Day 2

 

Yavapai Vista - Thataway

Well I arrived at Yavapai Vista parking lot and saw Pat as I was driving through.  My first thought, oh good, someone else is here.  Then as I got out of my car I saw someone else with a perky smile drive by.  It was Kris

Kris getting stuff out of her car

Then I thought, even better, there are 2 others.  But, it's still early so I'll wait to see who else might show up.  So, As Pat and Kris went on their way, I hung out at the bench waiting until just after 9:30 to see who else might show up -- No one else showed up.  

So, I gave up but was surprised because it was such a beautiful morning and couldn't imagine where the regulars were.  In fact it became so warm that I immediately had to take off my hoodie.  I found a spot not far from Pat's spot.

Pat in her spot

Thankfully she was wearing a very noticeable hat!

I actually took the first trail you come to right before the bench instead of going up past the bench, therefore, I didn't catch Kris in her spot -- however, here she is on her way to it.

Kris on her way to her spot

It was really good of these two to have worn something that made it easy for me to spot them!  

Anyway, I went on to my spot and was painting away while time was ticking.  Then somewhere around 10:40:42 or close to it, I heard this voice I recognized saying "So that's where you're hiding".  I looked up and saw Betty looking over towards Pat and talking.

Betty came and found us

I was so surprised.  It turns out that Betty and Bob got there around 9:15 instead of 9:30 and Betty said that Mike was around someplace too.  How about that!  So, while I was busy waiting for people to arrive, they were busy finding spots and getting started (without me 😢 )  However, I really was glad to learn that they all were there, someplace.

I did start to go up to the actual "vista" to see if that was where Mike was, but instead turned around and just decided to pack up and head down to the bench.

After hanging out there for a bit I finally got to see Bob

Bob getting ready to bring his painting over

I had seen Pat head down towards her car, turned out she was just putting her stuff away.  But, while on her way down a fellow on a bike stopped to comment on her painting and mentioned that his wife is an excellent watercolorist and they live here part time.  So, he stopped by me to ask how his wife could become a part of the group - her name is Anna.  Well, needless to say, he stopped to ask the right person and I gathered her info and she's now on "the list".  Although they'll only be here until March when they'll head to their other home someplace in the cold.  Gee, that's too bad because as WE ALL KNOW, March, April & May are some of the prettiest months here with fantastic weather.  In any event, I know we all look forward to meeting Anna.

Oops, almost forgot -- I heard that Nori was there as I think Betty & Pat saw her.  However, she left early because her husband wanted to go skiing.  So she went from painting in the hot sun to skiing on the sunny slopes.

Ok, back to waiting for the rest to show up, I spotted Mike through the trees (no surprise there, except he was walking and not sitting and painting).

Mike in the trees - I snapped a second too late 

Oh look!  There's a sneak peak of the gallery.  Anyway, we all got to stand there and chat while waiting for Kris, she was blissfully painting away and not paying attention to the time.  Also, as we all know, 2 hours goes by pretty quick.

But, I was able to find her and helped her gather her stuff and we headed down for the grand showing.  As always, the trusty bench made a great gallery for our paintings (which you all already know because you just got a sneak peak prior to any shuffling).  But, here's the real deal.

And then we gathered together and very cheerily smiled on 2.

(L to R) Bob, Me, Mike, Betty, Kris, Pat

One more thing - see it was not only warm enough to shed hoodies and stuff, a few of us even rolled up our sleeves.  

Well, not sure about next week as the weather they're talking about is not at all like this day was.  So we shall see when we get closer.  Hope it's not as long a break as these past few weeks were!  Hope to see you soon.

Cecilia