PAAR Paint Out 08 Week - Day 1

Glad to be back, and boy do I have a lot to show and tell to get you caught up. Since I didn't have a spare moment to keep you up to date on the daily happenings of the 3rd annual Paint Out of the Plein Air Artists of Riverside, I will start updating this week and try to remember the highlights of each day. We painted for 9 days in some of the worst wind imaginable (60 to 70 miles per hour), followed by some of the most beautiful days you can imagine for January (temps up to 75 degrees) in Southern California.

We had 38 participants in the event. Most all 38 participants painted on the weekends and anywhere from 20 to 25 painted during the week. Some artists played hooky from their jobs to come out and paint. (Did I say that!). All in all it was a wonderful week, one I will look forward to every year. The PAAR board went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure this event was special. We had continental breakfast every morning and supplied the artist with a sack snack including an apple, water and goodies to get them through the day.

I took on Sharon Sahovy a member of PAAR to help out with the Quick Draw (be careful not to volunteer around me, I will put you to work) and she did a fabulous job helping me in whatever I asked her to do. More on the Quick Draw later.

Day 1 was a beautiful day in downtown Riverside. The artist checked in at 8:30 a.m. where they received a canvas tote full of goodies. A lovely pin was donated by the Riverside Art Museum for the occasion. Raymar Art Supplies donated an 8 x 10 canvas for each artist participating and the Metropolitan Museum donated pencils. A lot of info including calendars for the next 3 months painting sites for the artist was included and of course some essentials that any artist might need during the week. After check in the artist were treated to a continental breakfast with great Mexican Pastry donated by club member and photographer Albert Varela. The artist were asked to stay on Mission Inn Ave to paint. The Press Enterprise came out and did a video of some of the artist painting and wrote a very nice article about the event for the newspaper. (http://www.pe.com/ Jan. 12, 2008) to read the article and view the video. There was also an article written about the event on Jan. 10 or 11. Just type in Plein Air Artists of Riverside in the search box and the articles will come up for you to read and view.

After check in, I packed up my painting gear and walked down to Library Park across from the infamous Mission Inn Hotel. I spotted the tower in full sun with these lovely shadows of the palms on the walls of the Mission. I especially liked the view of the mountains in the distance (on the right side) with a few palm trees to give the painting a little atmosphere.

Around 1 p.m. the cell phone was ringing, "Let's go to Lunch!" Albert the group photographer (who took all the photos on this page except the photo of the painting) came by and said "Let's go Terry". My friend Carolyn Kilgore the proud owner of one of my Afghan Hounds Penelope was painting near by, she didn't want to eat lunch but said she would watch my easel and to go on. Unfortunately in Library Park a lot of the homeless are hanging around, so you have to be careful. They are very nice people and I hate to see them like this. They actually enjoy chatting with you about painting and what they have done as far as art and they are happy to model as some of the artist have put them in their paintings. Today one of them told me he had studied all the masters and he could paint almost as good as them. I smiled and told him I wished I was that good!

So Albert and I walked over to Las Campanas to join a group of starving artist...(no pun intended)...It would not have been a completed outing in downtown Riverside without margaritas and eating Mexican food to enjoy the day and start the event! (In the photo starting from the back left, Sylvia Ramos, Elin Pendleton, Albert Varela, Louise Smith, Terry d., Joan Coffey and Fernanda Natale Reynolds.