Puddles on my Palette
Puddles on my Palette, oil on masonite, 11"x14"
On what would normally have been just a foggy October morning, I headed over to one of my favorite local gems, Discovery Lake, for a session with my “Monday group”, the Plein Air Painters of San Diego (PAPASAN). There was definitely a fallish chill in the air, but we certainly didn’t expect lightning, thunder and an ensuing downpour!
We are all either stalwart or dumb as rocks, because none of us scurried for cover, except to sidle under the sycamore trees. Or maybe we were just enjoying the incredibly soft light under those wet clouds. We hoisted our painting parasols to try to keep the water off our paintings in progress. Painting parasols, by the way, are not designed to be waterproof, they are designed to keep the sun off the canvas and palette so one might better see the true colors one is applying.
Painting parasols, apparently, leak.
And when enough rain gets on a canvas, wet paint will start sliding off.
But everyone in our little group was in high spirits, and I can’t remember laughing so much during a morning’s painting session. Even if some of us did have to tip our easels over to let the rainwater run out of the palette!
As to whether you are stalwart or dumb as a rock, I’ll go with stalwart if it produces paintings such as this. Hopefully you will have an umbrella as opposed to a painting parasol to keep the water off your paints for future painting trips in the rain.