Day 3: A Painting Pilgrimage - Follow the 50

This is yesterday's image of Mather Lodge, where I will stay one more night. It is important to note that this is yesterday because today was cold and grey and began to snow once I set up my easle. It came down in perfect little balls. They stuck to my painting and palette and refused to mix in, even with the emphatic urging of a palette knife. I smudged the paint on an 8x10 and finally climbed in the Fit and cranked the heat when I was too cold to grip a brush, then called Angela, my favorite veteran-painter friend. She plein-air paints in the winter and even likes the texture of cold paint, imagine! She gave me the best idea of the day: paint from the back of the Honda with the hatch up.  Simple.

So I moved to a different overlook and crammed into the back of the car, wedged between my canvas-bearing sweater rack, a box of Christmas presents for Peter and a case of beer, also for Peter (though some have mysteriously disappeared). I was able to balance the 2nd 8x10 on my thighs, set the palette on the beer box and start a decent painting, careful not to tip over the jar of turpentine. My feet went numb since they were sticking out into the cold and not getting much blood flow but the painting had potential. Unfortunately, the view became increasingly vague as the little balls morphed into giant flakes and the valley below disappeared into white.

I soon returned to the lodge, determined to regroup and paint after lunch but I could not convince myself to go outside again and so I sat by the giant fire and read.

IF I could upload today's photos (the iPad just isn't a laptop, now is it), then you could see how my two small paintings turned out. Neither would qualify as a worthy "First" in my series of 50, but I do have tomorrow to paint in this state before I head to Oklahoma. I think I will go to Magazine Mountain, the highest point in Arkansas.