The goal of the above photo was to show the swing -- see the yellow rope? We didn't see it being used though and none of the artists were up to the challenge - gee, wonder why?
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| (L to R) Nori, Ed, Mike, Denise, Kristen (the long shadow starting at the bottom is me- I'm the tallest 😊) |
That was the group that was there or they were just getting there when I arrived. What a pleasant surprise to see Ed was able to join us. I knew that Tecla and Carolyn would be joining us, but I also knew that they would figure out where to look for us, so we all headed to the water.
We mostly all recognized each other -- after all it has been a while, but there was some confusion about this guy.
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| (L to R) Ed, Mike |
In case you're wondering who I mean -- it's not Ed. Yes, apparently Mike said that all his favorite artists have beards, soooo, he decided to let his grow quite a bit longer. Oh, and by the way, that was also their spots. My spot was just over and behind them and Nori took the spot just to the right of me.
While we were painting these two stragglers came along.
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| Seated is Mike, Nori in orange with her back to us. The stragglers -- Tecla & Carolyn on either side of Nori |
So, they had a good excuse for being late. They went to the OTHER River Access Point. Hey, but at least they figured that out and found us.
Oh, here's a pic with some perspective for Ed, Mike, Nori & my spots - the photo was taken from my spot. And, as you can see we all had plenty of shade.
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| (L to R) Ed, Mike, Nori |
Well, so far I've done a really good job of taking pics of Ed from the back 🥴
While Ed was searching for his spot, he came across something a bit unusual and told us about it. I went to look for it and took a photo.
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| Nico & Rico |
Ok, so we're really just assuming (hoping) that they were pets and nothing sinister. They did have hearts carved below the names.
There were a few others who also arrived a bit later -- one was a usual suspect and the other a totally new person who was told about us by Ed. Coincidentally enough, I have a photo of just the two of them.
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| Nita (the usual suspect) & Ivan |
Here's Tecla in her spot and Carolyn in her spot.
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| Tecla |
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| Carolyn |
Clearly being away from plein air painting for too long left me a bit disorganized. How about I forgot the shelf that goes on the tripod and I decided to bring my watercolor stuff. So, that meant I had to balance my cup of water on the one inch shelf that my painting was sitting on (also blocking a part of my painting) and to top it all off ... I didn't bring a little handheld palette but a bigger one that I had to hold. I'm surprised I didn't topple everything over on top of myself. So you see why a table would've been a better solution.
Now around a clump of trees, shrubs, etc. and right by the actual rafters River Access Point
I found Denise & Kristen in their spots.
I found Denise & Kristen in their spots.
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| (L to R or Front to Back) Denise, Kristen |
Oops, almost forgot to include this one:
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| Nita in her spot |
We were winding up and I had already packed up when I saw a familiar figure all dressed in red show up at the access point.
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| Annie & Suzie |
Ok, so you don't know Annie, actually one or two of you might from a long time ago at VOCA Mondays. But, you do know Suzie and that's one heck of a brush she's holding -- oh wait, it's a paddle. Yes, her and Annie were going to actually make use of that water. Annie, is also a good friend of mine and an artist as well. However, she does stained glass. So, not exactly a plein air medium, but she really could take photos for it if she joined us. I keep telling her that anyway.
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| And Off They Went |
Another person showed up to say Hi, a friend of Kristen's and a River Ambassador who was really there working. Here's a link with info about the Verde River Ambassadors, note that clicking on the link will take you to a new page and will not close you out of this post.
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| Kristen & Heather |
Well, my work did actually make it to that picnic table, as did everyone else's,
The time really did go by fast but as you can see, no one was really out of practice. We put together a really great gallery. Kristen felt that we didn't spend enough time looking at it. I agree, sometimes it's hard to take it all in quickly enough before we're taking it down.
But, as in the past, we crowded together and smiled on 2 (even our River Ambassador joined in).
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| (Back to Front and L to R) Mike Nori, Heather, Kristen, Carolyn, Denise, Nita Tecla, Me, Ed, Ivan & someone's mug |
Cecilia