Plein Aire Painting Workshop in Calvert I

Plein Aire Painting Photos

Calvert, Texas

February, 2009

I wanted to add these pictures as a slide show, but, since I still have not been able to get the Slide Show feature to work, since last October, I am just going to add a few pictures from the workshop in Calvert, a few at a time.

Here is the story from Friday February 20-Sunday February 22.

Top Photo- After watching my grandson get an award at his school, Barbara and I packed my things in her car and traveled to Calvert. Our presenter, the artist V....Vaughan, was scheduled to arrive that night, after she watched her son play baseball. We settled in and got our painting things ready to go out before sunrise on Saturday morning. Barbara cooked supper, as shown in the top picture.

Second Photo- One of the staples that we always had on our menu when we were growing up. Goulash! Our goulash consists of ground meat, onions, and canned tomatoes with a little salt and pepper, with a little water added for juice. Sometimes, we add in things like corn, bell pepper, macaroni, and even biscuits on top. This is basically the same way that we made spaghetti sauce, too. This picture shows a pan with the goulash, before a can of tomatoes was added. Sure was good!

Third Photo- On Saturday morning, we went out in the dark, to the same place where we had painted in October, but a little different view. This was just north of Calvert on Sunnyside Road. In this picture, V.... was setting up her equipment for her demonstration of painting the sunrise.

Fourth Photo- V.... paints the sunrise while Barbara and Toni watch. Sonny was watching the sky, and V.... painting.

Bottom Photo- Barbara brought kolaches from Zamykal Gourtmet Kolache shop in Calvert for participants to enjoy while V.... painted. Always delicious!

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If anyone at the workshop finished their painting started in Calvert, and you would like to share it on my blog, just send it along and I'll be glad to add it. I know that they all looked good!

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Also, V.... assigned homework, so be sure to be working on that!

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We are talking about the next workshop taking place next October in Calvert. And, in between that time, V... will be conducting workshops in other places. Look at her website and her blog for schedules. http://www.v-vaughan.com and http://www.vvaughan.blogspot.com

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If you are interested in drawing, painting, etc. in the Brazos Valley area, I hope that you will consider joining the group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BrazosValley_Sketchers. For convenience, I added a Join button at the top of my sidebar. The next thing coming up is the 22nd World Wide Sketch Crawl Saturday April 11, 2009. There is a similar group, Brazos Valley Sketchers, on Facebook.

I hope that we can get these things started all over the Brazos Valley, in each community. If you would like to be a contact person, or start a group, or if you would like to join us in Bryan or Calvert, let me know. I registered for Bryan/College Station/Calvert/the Brazos Valley area on the Forum at http://www.sketchcrawl.com. There are other cities and countries listed there including Houston and Georgetown. I know they have a group in Austin, too.

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I'm thinking that we need to do another rain dance! We need rain. It looks like some might be coming, later in the week. We should be prepared for drought as it happens in our area, along with other years of plentiful rainfall. The worst I remember was in the 1950s. That wasn't all that far removed from the time of the Dust Bowl. A really terrible time.

I'm amazed at people talking about snowfall and ice, since it has been so warm, and, of course, dry, here. Supposedly, it will get a bit colder with this next front. The important thing, though, is going to be moisture.

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