I'm Baaaccckkk

From 10 days painting in Glen Arbor! Overall it was a really good trip. The weather was definitely on the cold side though....one of the days I was out the temperature never got over 44 degrees, coupled with 20mph+ winds. The saving grace that day was that the sun was absolutely brilliant and tucked up into the dunes it felt like it might have been 46 degrees, really. Good thing I brought the swix XC ski gloves which are now residing in my paint kit. Over the course of the week, I managed 17 paintings, 13 which were done on site.

One of the highlights of this particular trip was that on one of the days, I painted with a group of other artists; Melanie Parke, Richard Kooyman, Margaret Tvedten and Beth Bricker. ( See links) I never get to paint with anyone else, so it was really fun to just be in the company of all this great talent for the day. We hiked up to the top of Sleeping Bear Point, which Richard swears is the Vortex of all creativity! I think I'd have to agree with him. The first painting here is from that morning. The hike was probably a mile and a quarter...up, carrying all our gear. Style points go to Margaret who carried a card table up to the top as she was doing a very long watercolor. Melanie worked in gouche, Beth in pastel, Richard and I both worked in oils. We spent the morning into early afternoon there, heading into Art's Tavern for Burgers and deep fried Tator tots. (o.k. don't knock the Tator tots until you've had them deep fried.) After lunch, we headed up to Bohemian Road for the afternoon session.



Craig and Bodhi joined me almost a week into the trip.Let's say three is a crowd when you're out painting and 2 of that crowd is not painting! Craig had the BRILLIANT idea that he and Bodhi would join me for a morning session. On paper it looked good, really. Bodhi and Craig would sit on the beach, play fetch, etc. while I painted. Right. Lets see....we got there, I started to set up while Craig walked the Beaster to the beach. But no, in true dog fashion the Beaster likes all of us to be together in a pack, so he spent most of his time running between me and Craig, stopping for an occasional swim, then coming up and shaking all over me and my gear. In summary, that morning's painting is not one I'll be showing anytime soon.