A Glorious Day!



The scene I chose




Singer Jeremy Fiori next to my unfinished painting



       Today I had a 10:30 A.M. meeting in Old Town with members of the Art League Grassroots Committee.  We had a really good meeting and a comfortable one as we met in one of the local coffee houses.  The meeting put me in a happy mood and I was eager for an afternoon of painting.  I grabbed a sandwich there and then headed for the Torpedo Factory Dock.  I hadn't painted on the dock since the summer and I didn't in the least bit miss the 100 degree, humid day.  Today was in a word, glorious!  How can this be February?  The temperature hovered around 70 degrees and lots of people were out enjoying the sunshine and wonderful cloud show. Quite a few stopped by to chat including a very small boy who likes to paint in water color and was intrigued by my oil paint. Adding to my pleasure was singer Jeremy Fiori who was a short distance behind me playing his guitar and singing beautifully.  Let me give him a little publicity here... Go to Youtube music and type in his name, Jeremy Fiori.  He is, as he told me, all over the place.  Have a listen. It's worth it.  We exchanged contact information and I will let him know the next time we are painting there and maybe he can supply the musical enhancement again:) 

      Fellow Art League Plein Air Painter Jill Banks also was out painting but opted to go beyond the dock to Founders Park.  It looked like she had another wonderful Banks painting underway.

      I had to stop after 2 hours but I have enough there to finish the painting at home.  I suppose I could keep it until another wonderful day arrives but I would really prefer to finish it while the paint is still wet.  Just another hour should do it.  The sky is fine and I can finish the water from memory.  Some beautiful pink/gold/lavender reflections started to show in the water.  Reflections from the clouds.  I put a few of those color notes down where they appeared and can build on them tomorrow.  I took several digital photos because I will need to know where the masts were for the boats.  I roughed in the boat locations but without the photos wouldn't know where to stick the masts and the reflections of them in the water. I stopped at the hour the when the colors were really getting rich and the shadows long and I would have liked to have stayed.  The tree I was next to began to cast dappled light on my canvas which is hard to work with.  It confuses the values and colors so it made me feel less bad about having to leave. 

      This Sunday I will be painting in Georgetown with the Washington Society of Landscape Painters and it sure would be great if we had another day like this!  LIFE IS GOOD!