The Plein Air Artists of Riverside outing this weekend was the Mission in San Juan Capistrano. My biggest mistake made in Plein Air for 3 years. I forgot my easel! I set out my equipment the night before and I was missing my tripod. I had set my easel on the table in my studio, put all my other equipment on the floor. I found my tripod and decided to load the car before going to bed. Never gave it another thought until I lifted the hatchback on my SUV. Oh My God! I forgot my easel. Well my friend Pat and I went on in the mission, paid our fee and said hello to the fellow members who had arrived before us. Of course on the way down to San Juan which is about 1 1/2 hours drive, it took 2 1/2 hours because Pat and I were so busy talking we missed our freeway for a more direct route. Oh well, I said, we can go down the coast highway. This is such a lovely drive and there was not much traffic for a Saturday morning. After going into the beautiful garden at the mission I looked for a bench to sit on that would be in the shade and propped my equipment up best I could and found a 5 x 7 canvas. I painted a scened that looked out towards the bell tower with the lovely garden in the foreground. Not too bad without an easel. Around lunch time, Pat and I went across the street to a taco stand and had fish tacos. When we came back I decided to give a larger canvas a try. As I was sketching in the scene Evelyn, another painter came by with some tape and taped my canvas to my luggage wheels. I am a survivor, I can now paint without an easel. Of course, now that I know I can do this, I will probably never forget my easel again. I sat on the bench and turned truly sideways to be able to paint. Boy did my back hurt when I was finished. This is the second painting. It was such a beautiful day, temperature around 75, light wind, a painters dream. Well for the painters who had easels that is! Enjoy the 2 paintings. Terry
