Every year, the little town of Augusta sponsors a week-long Plein Air Painting Festival.
Plein Air means painting outside, which in Missouri can be a crapshoot, weather-wise, especially in the spring. Every day, the artists set up in a different location - about half the time in Augusta, that's a winery. They have to complete their paintings in a specified period of time, frame their work, and then turn it in for judging. Sounds like a lot of pressure to me.
I went over on Sunday to the paintout at Mount Pleasant Winery. Some of the St Louis and Kansas City urban sketchers were going to be there, so I thought I'd try painting the painters (I was not doing this for judging). I give the artists a lot of credit, because it was very cool and windy. I stayed a couple hours before giving up and heading home. They had 2-1/2 more hours to go to complete their paintings.
On Tuesday, I signed up for one of the painting workshops, partly for the experience and mostly because it was being held at
Kate's Coffee and brunch was included. My "expertise" is in watercolor, so I was a little flustered to show up and find acrylic paint set out on the tables. I would have worn junkier clothes, as I am not known for neatness.
We were all supposed to paint a picture of a stone statue sitting in the corner of the garden. I managed to get a fairly decent picture of the statue (though her legs are way too short). I didn't have time to do much with the background, but throw on some color. We were very fortunate in that the rain held off until the exact second that our workshop was over. So we all ran inside to eat our brunch (which was absolutely delicious) and wait for the downpour to end before driving back home. It was a nice experience, but I think I'll stick with painting inside if it's raining outside.
