The forecast for the end of the week was good: up into the 40s. We’d all regretted not painting outside last week when it was equally warm so this week we planned accordingly. We met at the Arboretum and painted outside.
I was kind of hoping it would be overcast. The day before, I’d driven out to my parents’ house and the tree covered hills that line the highway were all frosted. It was gorgeous and not just because I was dying to use my new paint.
A week earlier, I’d ordered 12 Shades of Grey from Jerry’s Arterama. The box arrived midweek and with names like Orange Grey, Yellow Grey, Green Grey, Violet Grey, Warm Grey, Cool Grey, Mid Grey etc. I was drooling over the idea of painting winter hills covered with frosty trees.
No such luck; it was a clear, cloudless, blue diamond day. Winter spectacular.
The Arboretum was glorious, as ever. We met at the main building and discussed possibly painting sites. We took the breeze into consideration, made our choice and set off. We didn’t go too far into the garden because we were all hauling our supplies. Mine consist of a large canvas bag that holds my paint box, canvases, brushes, a roll of paper towels, hand mirror, reducing lens, solvent, liquin, package of latex gloves, tape, cardboard, a palette knife, palette and a plastic bag for my used towels. On this particular day I also had a hat in case my headband proved inadequate and mittens if my fingers froze. In my other hand, I carry my field easel in its handy dandy carrying case. This stuff doesn’t weigh much when you’re carrying it from the car to the studio but when you’re going a half mile into the woods, it gets heavier by the yard.
We spent the morning at the iris pond. We’d painted there last spring, as the sun set. It looked different then.
It was my first time ever trying to paint snow while I was out in it. It was a blast! Rick showed us how he approached a winter scene and I love his winters scenes, so I paid close attention. It never would have occurred to me to under-paint sundrenched snow with peach but that gave the foreground the vibration it needed to glow with sunlight. My failure was not getting the top coat heavy enough. I can fix that but I don’t know if I will. As it is, this one will always remind me how I got there.
We painted in this spot for three hours. We’d chosen a spot that was out of the wind and out in the sun. We were set up right on the road so the snow wasn’t a problem and we’d left enough room for the few cars that came by to pass us, as long as everyone was careful. The plow that came by twice made me a bit nervous as I’d set up my canvas in the berm of snow at the edge of the road and only had to move myself when a vehicle came by. That plow shaved an inch of the berm each time it passed. If it had come by one more time, my canvas might have tumbled into the road. We all produced canvases that we liked.
Then we broke for lunch. I ran back to my car and dumped my first canvas and two layers of clothes. I’d gotten really hot and sweaty, standing there in the full sun painting. I left the wool hat and mittens in the car, too, then met everyone in the cafeteria for lunch. I had the chicken wrap. It’s really good.
We went out onto the other side of the building after lunch, past the parking lot and over the hill to where the lilacs are. They’re all bare, of course but the hill is lined with close packed ever greens, which looked magnificent and sort of martial, with the sunlit snow in front of them and the blue sky behind.
We all clustered around a bare lilac bush and set up our stuff. Three of us painted what was west of us and one turned around and painted what was east.
I got my initial washes down in about ten minutes and wanted to throw my hands in the air and yell “I’m done!” I felt like I’d nailed the values and I was pushing my luck with every stroke of the brush after that.
But I persisted.
Some pale, thin clouds drifted up from the western horizon while we painted but the sun remained warm and uninhibited. The snow under our feet melted as we packed it down. It got really slippery around that lilac bush.
I wasn’t going to put in the footprints until I looked at the other’s work and saw what a nice dimension they added to the composition. So I manned up and attacked them. They totally make the piece.
I took a long, hot shower before bed but when I got up this morning, my back and shoulders were stiff and sore from lugging my gear all over the Arboretum. The stiffness went away by the time I had my third cup of coffee, which was a good thing, since I had company coming over.
Megan dropped Xena and Babalouie off a little after 10. We had a great day together! We started out mixing up chocolate chip cookies, which I hadn’t made since before Thanksgiving. I showed them the short video of BoopityBoop’s dance party, in which Boopity does the twist. They were very interested in that dance so I popped in Hairspray, a movie in which lots of folks dance the Twist. I don’t think they would have liked Pulp Fiction. Xena loved the movie! Babalouie wasn’t that into it, so he helped me with the cookies instead and asked me to tell him the story of Smaug again. Halfway through my telling, he took over and told me how Bard the Bowman shot the dragon right through the bare spot on his chest and killed him. It’s going to be so much fun watching those movies (not to mention reading those books!) with him when he gets a little older!
Long before the end of Hairspray, Xena announced her intention to marry Zac Efron someday.
We went online and looked at photos of Mr. Efron. Xena doesn’t think he’s too old for her but she does like the pics of Linc best. Just wait till she sees High School Musical (I, II and III)!
Then we looked at photos of John Travolta, who was so wonderful as Edna Turnblad that Xena couldn’t believe she was played by a man. Naturally, we had to look at photos of young Travolta, when he was cute. She’s seen Grease and couldn’t believe that Danny Zuko and Edna were played by the same guy!
Then she went back to looking at pics of Zac while I made lunch.
After lunch, we bundled up and went to the park, where they played until we all got cold. It was a brisk day. The temps had fallen back to just below zero and all the snowmelt on the sidewalks had turned back into treacherous ice. While we were at the playground, a brief flurry dusted us, then went away and the sun came back out. A lone skater was testing the slushy ice rink without much success. Temps are supposed to remain below freezing for the next week or so; plenty of time left for skating.
Back at the house, we read books and tried to take a nap. The nap was a huge success, even though no one slept. Babalouie read a book about Babe Ruth to us. Mostly, he repeated everything he’s learned about the Great Bambino from the movie the Sandlot, adding his own bits and pieces, involving an evil baseball coach, inspired by the black and white photos in the book. Then, he and Xena played ‘fort’ in my bed. By the time the nap was over, the top sheet had somehow been removed from the bed completely while the two comforters had been turned into rival camps.
A lot of the late afternoon was spent playing hide and seek with Zack. Both Xena and Babalouie have learned the art of hiding: stillness and silence. Both found great hiding spots that took Zack nearly 15 minutes to finally discover.
Babalouie played a lot of nerf basketball in the kitchen while Xena and I looked at wedding dresses online, declaring them “pretty!” or “ugly!” as they clicked by. When we got tired of white, we switched to prom dresses. While I cleaned the kitchen before making dinner, Xena was on a search for stuffed unicorns. She found several pink and purple ones she really liked and tried to make me promise to get her one for her birthday. I refused to commit.
They were delightful all day! Not once did I have to break up a fight or comfort unreasonable tears. The hardest part of spending a whole day with them is that they never stop talking and they’re never talking about the same thing but I was raised under those conditions and my skills in that direction are highly developed.
Ty and Megan went to see the Greatest Showman. The first two theaters they tried were sold out!
The movie’s been out a month and its selling out Saturday matinees!
Ty was willing to bag it or see something else but Megan hasn’t had a break since Christmas and insisted that they find a theater showing the movie she wanted to see. There’s at least four theaters within five miles of my house where it’s showing and at least one had tickets.
She persisted.
Ty was glad she did: They both loved it.
Ten seconds into the opening number, Megan thought “We should have brought Xena.”
Oh, yeah. She’ll love it. She’ll want to grow a beard and have a trapeze installed in their barn.
After the movie, they brought us dinner.
Jay’s team, which had a game in the afternoon, won. He brought home prime rib. He and I ate the prime rib while all the kids had pizza and French fries.
Life rarely gives you two days in a row when you get to do exactly what you want.
I appreciate it.