Oh ho hum.  Wednesday morning we met at 9 at the Harbor Lite Lodge and Albert Handell did an oil demo that was just beautiful.  A tree.  He started it with an umber wash over the whole canvas... about 20x14... and I took copious notes.  This demo really motivated me to experiment with some oil paintings when this workshop is over.  My friend Pat Peterson recently delivered to me a box of his mother's art supplies.  She was a wonderful oil painter, and I have her tubes of paint, brushes, canvasses and some nice frames.  I'm really all set.  now I know what to do and how to do it.  Excited about this.

So, today instead of going to Mendocino to the Druid Grove, as planned (and announced to some people) we went down the hill to the harbor.  The instruction was to look for REFLECTIONS and that Albert was going to paint Heron's Restaurant and would be arriving around 2:30. 

Vera drove us down the hill; we had lunch at Corinnes with several other people from our group, and then set out.  Right next to the restaurant was a wonderful derelict ship and a shack and some other nice subjects; but we wanted to paint near the master, so went in that direction. 

SHEESH... It was quite windy and very chilly (put on sweaters, up hoodie, on with jackets), so after  whining about that for awhile, we returned to the area around the restaurant, found a great spot for a PAN IN item with reflections for me (warm in the sun, no wind, removed sweater, hoodie, jacket); and something similar for Vera, and we set up our easels.  Just as pastel hit paper, we were asked to move so a boat could receive fuel via a hose that went right through where we were sitting.  So

we packed up and decided that we'd go watch Albert paint.  We went to where he had set up and was painting a building (no reflections - another frustration for me) and it was cold in the wind (clothes on again) and watched for a few minutes and I went to get my sketchbook but just couldn't sit there, so I decided to paint something, so I asked Albert what he would recommend for me to paint that was a PAN IN and he said "go paint anything... the window, whatever, just go up there and find something.  anything"  So I packed up my stuff, schepped it about 10 yards and came to a small eucalyptus tree and liked the way it came out of the riprap rocks and set up to paint the tree.

I had to watch for doggy bombs as I set up my easel and a bag of supplies.  no chair, table, or other accessories this time; I began to paint the tree with a pink under painting of pastels washed over with alcohol.  As I proceeded, my frustration increased and I was close to tears.  A woman came by and said how beautiful it was and I asked her to please go away.  Then a toothless fellow came by and told me what a wonderful artist I was and to keep working at it because I had some real potential.  He then asked if I knew if there was a Starbucks in town. 

Relieved to know that I had some talent!!!, I contined to work on my tree.  No pix today to show you, so sorry, but I'll try to get to that tomorrow.  It's exhausting, all this dressing and undressing and hauling my supplies from hither to yon and back again.  And I don't know where we'll be painting on Thursday.