Friday, November 28, 2025

Plein Air Tuesday - 11/25/25 - The Place That's Pretty When There's Water In It - Day 1

Photo by Nita -- Thanks Nita

From the looks of the photo, it was a bright sunny day.  What a great shimmer on that water, wonder how many captured it in a painting.

Well, thanks to LeAnne, we get to see their great paintings.  There's something else that comes along with all that great rain we had, besides the water in Dry Beaver Creek.  Let's see, I'll give you a hint.

LeAnne's Shoes -- Photo by Leanne

Yup, you get mud and apparently lots of it.  As you can see from the photo, it's not just on her shoes but also her jeans.  I wonder how far into the mud everyone's tripods sank.

Well, despite the mud, since the sun shined and the water made the dry creek pretty, some great paintings evolved.



Happy with their paintings, this little group all smiled on 2 (I'm guessing here about the 2 part), not sure who set up the photo or if it's a 5th artist.  There are 5 paintings/drawing up there, but Nita typically does more than 1.

Anyway, here they are!

Mike, Pete, LeAnne, Nita

Oh, I just saw the tell -- LeAnne took the photo -- she's using her watch -- how great, thanks LeAnne.  Guess that means it was just these 4 dedicated artists, and I'll bet that drawing was Nita's second.

Well, that's all till next time!

Cecilia




Thursday, November 13, 2025

Plein Air Tuesday - End of Verde Valley School Rd - Day 3

 


Surprise - it's not just red rocks.  What a pretty reflection in Oak Creek and a duck living the good life.

But, here's the picture you really expected to see:

I arrived and saw Pat in the parking lot, but then she disappeared.  I was surprised I missed seeing her walking down to the real end of the road.  Turns out there was a reason for that.  However, when I got there Sophie was already doing her wandering thing.

Sophie, spot already selected

She told me that David was there somewhere off to the other side of those shrubs and on the creek.  As I went to look for him and still wondering what could have happened to Pat, she showed up with Barbra

Pat pointing to the great outdoors ? and Barbra with her chair

It turned out that Barbra had a friend visiting from back East who is also a painter, so she came along.

(L to R) Barbra, Peg (her friend)

Here's a better picture of Sophie in her spot.

Sophie at the edge of the creek

I take photos from so far away, that no one is ever readily identifiable - well, at least you know they're candid.

So, I continued on my search to find David in his spot and still hadn't selected my spot.  But, I found him where Sophie said I would - see.

David with his hat hung

I honestly thought I took a pic of him showing his face, but guess I missed that.  Honestly, with as sensitive as my phone screen is with my icons always jiggling, you'd think when I go to press the photo button it would work - but no, that only happens at times when my hand is in the way or it's pointed at my neck.

Oh, the duck from above (there were actually 2) was taken from David's spot.

Pat's spot wound up being near my spot from last week.

Pat

Then Mike showed up and also LeAnne (once again, I missed taking a proper pic)

Mike

LeAnne (sorry)

But, I did get her in her spot.

LeAnne

Here's Mike in his spot.

Mike

We had someone return for this week at least.  It was Robin and she hasn't been with us in ages.  Been busy literally traveling the world and plans on doing some more.

Robin (she also had to leave early)

Yes, so unfortunately that's the only picture I had of her and she didn't really get a chance to do more than a block in for her painting.  But, it was still good to see her.

Of course, arriving right on time 😉 we had (Time Stamp 9:31:35) Nita.

(L to R) Robin, Barbra, Nita

She's clearly an artist that doesn't need a lot of time to do her paintings, because as always, she did more than one and it, of course, looked great.

Here's another pic of where Barbra, Robin and Barbra's friend Peg were.

(L to R) Peg, Barbra, Robin

If you look up above where Peg is sitting, you'll see the sign posts that show they were right there at the top where the road ends.

I caught this fellow just as we were getting ready to build our gallery.

That's Pete - his spot was off up the trail a ways

Oh, if you look at the above pic on the left side just below the tree, you'll see Nita in her spot.

Well, with the gallery being formed, it signaled time to wrap things up.  Below is the gallery and I must apologize to Pete, Barbra and LeAnne,  as I didn't catch the shadows being cast on their paintings.   I'll try to do better next time.  But, for now here's what I got followed by some closer up views.









In case you didn't already figure it out, David left early -- so his painting in the gallery is a floater.  Of course, so is he in the group shot which is next.

(L to R) Peg, Pat, LeAnne, Nita, David (behind) Barbra, Pete, Sophie, Mike, Me
Missing is Robin and it looks like David looks is almost out of the pic too as he fades into the background 

Well, it was a beautiful morning at the creek.

Till next time.

Cecilia


Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Plein Air Tuesday - 11/4/25 - End of Verde Valley School Road - Day 2

 


So this was Day 2 - I missed Day 1, but glad I was there for this day -- beautiful morning!!!  Started out thinking I should have worn long jeans and had a heavy sweatshirt with me.  It didn't even stay on for the walk down the hill.

Nori was unpacking her car as I got out, so I called over to her because I had the article from the newspaper about her being El Valle's Artist of the Month for October:


Walked and talked on down to the end of the road and found David set up and painting

Nori, David

Saw a couple of people I didn't know that looked like they were painting too, turns out it was a new girl and also a new guy.

"New Girl" Ashley

"New Guy" Pete

Smiling LeAnne

Smiling LeAnne came along, and apparently Gail was there somewhere off into the woods - never did see her as she was too involved in her painting to show up at the end.

Others that were there that I didn't get any photos of until the end were Betty (she was there when I got there and already moving along on her piece),  Sophie who apparently wandered her way into the woods.  Kris (with a "K") is back for the winter and Nita 1 who came in (late - gee, I forgot to get a timestamp, but I'm going to guess and say it was close to 10:00 and yet she managed to do 2 paintings - and big ones too!)

Oh, just realized, this was Betty's spot.

Betty's Spot

Well, the group was right on top of things, painting quickly and assembling at our usual spot when at this location.   So a Gallery was built pretty quickly with all paintings showing off to the best of their ability considering the irregularities of the platform.  The paintings did all looked great!


Apparently Sophie really went to the effort of color matching to the red rocks -- I should've put hers next to the green by David's painting.   Well, here are close ups so you can all have a better look at our end results.

Oh look at that - the 2 newbies to the group have their paintings together








As always, we managed to gather together after a little rounding up and smiled on 2.

Back Row (L to R) - David, Kris, LeAnne, Nita 1, Betty, Nori, Sophie, Pete
Front Row (L to R) - Me, Ashley


Till next time!

Cecilia