A pretty morning but very cool, well I guess technically it was COLD! That was something we were all a bit concerned about the previous week when we made the plans to meet at 9 instead of 9:30. It's the time of year when Winter refuses to just disappear into Spring, even though a lot of the trees are starting to bloom.
Suzette and I arrived just on time and found Betty & Pat had just arrived also.
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| (L to R) Pat, Betty |
Within seconds Nori showed up.
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| (L to R) Pat (still fumbling with her keys), Betty, Nori |
Or at least it looks like Pat's fumbling with her keys. The parking area or pullout is right off Red Rock Loop Road, so as you can imagine not overly inspiring. Pat had never been there before, so she looked at me and said "Sooo, this is it, huh?" With a look on her face that said, I shouldn't have left my warm home. I then explained, it's prettier at the top of that short little trail up the hill.
So we all headed up, Pat fumbled with her keys for a few more seconds and then joined us and here she is.
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| Pat |
Look at the smile on her face now. See, I told you it was pretty at the top. You can see the road down below in that pic, so not far away but a little bit of a climb.
As I was watching Pat come up the hill I noticed a car pulling into the parking area and smiled.
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| Orange Pumpkin pulling in |
That's Chris's car, I'd recognize it anyplace as would you all I'm sure. I just realized that when she got up there and we said hi, she probably was surprised that I wasn't surprised to see her. Failed to tell her about the pumpkin spotting.
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| Chris with a cheery wave - Hi Chris! |
While there really is a trail or two right there, we all really stay right up there at the top. There are enough pretty views to see all around. Here are a few of our artists wandering around looking for their spots.
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| (L to R) Pat on the edge, Betty, The "Tree", Nori |
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| (L to R) Betty, Suzette |
Now, this is interesting. Betty is sitting and in thinking about it, I think she always sits to do her drawing, or at least frequently sits to do her drawing. But then when it comes time to add paint to paper, she stands. Geez, I even have to have my painting facing in the direction that I'm painting, never mind adjusting my view up and down, I'd be lost for sure.
See, here she is - drawing done, now painting.
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| (L to R) Betty, Nori, Suzette |
This was taken when Nori went over for a visit and to chat. But, before this pic was taken, this happened.
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| Oh my - looks like a "new girl", we'll call her Liz |
Well, we're calling her that because that's actually her name. She's been on the "list" for a while but has never shown up. Today was the first. She found us through David who wasn't there this day. Hey, David, where were you?? Or, did you tell me and I just forgot as that is possible.
She decided that she was lugging too much stuff, so quickly found a spot and set to painting. She's another oil painter, like David.
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| Liz, the "new girl" |
Now, Pat doesn't know this, but she pretty much took the spot that Bob had last week.
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| Pat in her spot |
Well, I suppose, Bob may have been just a tad lower down the hill. Here are Nori & Chris in their spots.
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| (L to R) Nori, Chris |
I just noticed something sort of interesting. See the way Nori's standing - I'm referring to her left hand on her waist or hip like that. If you were take a picture of the two of us together while painting we'd look a bit like bookends. I'm left handed and place my right hand in the same manner. Although as bookends we might look a bit uneven - it's just a height thing.
This next picture sort of shows you my spot.
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| (L to R) Pat, right edge of paper is My spot |
I failed to do the full lineup - but I have the photos of the paintings in a viewable size. In case you were wondering, we used The "Tree" for our gallery again.
So, while there weren't a lot of us, it took us surprising long to gather together for the group photo. I'm saying this because ... the above photo was the last pic I took of the paintings and that happened at 11:03:40. This next photo, where we all smiled on 2, took place at 11:15:56. Hey, we were all having a good time, which means as always those were genuine smiles!
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| (L to R) Chris, Me, Nori, Liz (the new girl), Betty, Pat, Suzette |
It was a fun morning and though cold, a very pretty day! Till next week!
Cecilia