Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Sunshine Climb (~10x14)

This painting features Mount Brett on the left and behind her Mount Bourgeau. I just can't say enough about my day in the mountains. Here's the story...
Today I painted with 38 others at the 4th Annual Plein Air Paint Out at Sunshine Meadows. The day began at 7 am when Sheila picked me up for the drive up. We parked at the Sunshine lifts at 8:30 and stretched and visited a bit before our bus left for the top at 9am. The first thing I figured out when we arrived at Sunshine Village was that my camera card was back in my computer at the house. I was so disappointed and I'd stowed my camera for the day in Sheila's trunk when Rita Rankin offered my her spare SD card. I'm so thankful for her generosity - some of you know how snap happy I am and I really took some gems today!
It was so much fun to meet and visit with the other artists throughout the day. At the top, Sheila helped me repack my gear [we left half with the cook] and we were off to hike up to the meadows. Neither of us realized that the hike up would be required. It took about 20 minutes of stop and go walking/hiking to get to the spot we decided to paint from (not the meadows - too far). Duane Hendricks was scoping the place out when we stopped and we decided to stop and paint with him there. We could have painted from that one spot for weeks there was so much beauty to look at.
The weather was not so beautiful - it blew, rained, snowed, and sleeted between very brief sunny periods. I wanted to quit watercolor on the spot. My hands were so stiff and chapped after two hours of holding wet stuff it was hard to keep painting. But, we kept at it and the time really flew with all the weather changes and chatting with hikers that walked by. By about 1 we packed our stuff up and decided that we'd just walk up a little further and see what we were missing. Good grief! I bet we walked another 20 minutes up the path - we just couldn't stop looking and taking pictures. Wow! We just kept going "around the next bend and over the next hill". When we'd stop so I could get my breath back (thank you Mr Pneumonia!) we'd talk it over and decide we wanted to see more... Anyhow, soon we saw beautiful Rock Isle Lake and it made the walk worthwhile. I could be feeling pretty sore tomorrow but it was worth it.
The walk down was much easier. We ate our lunch while we waited for the bus. Then we heard that there was a waterfall immediately behind the building so we stayed another hour to scope that out. It was a long but very satisfying day... I hope you had a good one too!
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