Over the past four weeks, I have met with other artists each Friday for an en plein air session. I wrote about it a couple of posts ago. Today is Friday, the fourth in a row, and it is raining. More accurately: pouring!
My art pals are dropping out one by one, and my stubborn streak is strengthening. I have everything packed, lunch is made, and come hell or high water (pretty apt), I am going to give it a go!
First things first, I should show you the finished sketch from last Friday’s session, down at Saltery Bay. The trees on the land in the background took literally ages. The sketch is now framed.
Back to this morning. I step out our front door and the rain has stopped. Yes! And, the rain is no longer falling for most of the journey south – until about five minutes from my destination.
And so it is that I tootle through the forest, which is also a provincial campground, to the parking area before a 200m walk to the shore. It is a deluge! Well, I can at least go and take some photos…carefully keeping the camera as dry as possible. Within moments I am soaked, but being in a forest when it’s raining is the best time to see a forest. Everything seems so alive, like it is growing right there before my eyes. Yes, there is no other human around (except perhaps somebody in a makeshift camp perhaps in it for the long haul through Covid) however, nature is almost deafening.
So, I am soaked, but I did capture reference photos of the area. I have chickened out of sitting in my car to draw a scene through the drip-soaked windscreen. Instead, the blower is on full blast, the heat turned up – because the whole car interior was steamy – and I’m heading home to paint in the comfort of four walls and a roof. There is always next Friday 🙂 Here are photos from the excursion.
Janet and Janet 