Day 2 of OPA activities-Painting Evergreen

Thursday was the second day of the Oil Painters of America's activities. We started at 8 a.m. with a continental breakfast hosted by Plein Air Magazine at Evergreen Fine Art Gallery; then maps and a goodie bag were provided for painting in and around Evergreen. I went off in search of something besides landscape so headed the opposite direction of most; towards the little town of Kittredge. I got separated from my two buddies I was going to paint with taking a few last photos before we headed up to Parmalee Gulch, or so I thought! I was sure I was not "that" far behind them. Did not catch up to them, but I did find a great spread of blue farm buildings, of which I sat and did a study for a larger painting just to get a feel for the place.

When I stopped in Kittredge for lunch, I got to talking to the waitress. Not only had she seen me painting alongside the road on her way into work, she told me that this family has started farming and they are on Facebook. I will have to give them a heads up when I get this painting done. There were two horses, who in this photo are off to the far right. I do have better references for them.

Abstracted Queen Anne's Lace, 10x8, oil on board

After grabbing my "to go" burrito, I looked to see if Margaret's car was parked where I knew she was staying, and it was! She had come back after losing me to just paint along Bear Creek right outside the cabin where she was staying. I decided to join her. Being ready for some shade, I set up in front of Queen Anne's Lace. It stayed in the shade, but as the sun moved overhead, I did not; I ended up moving to a shadier place to finish it, and therefore went for a more abstracted view of it than a truer to life version.

OPA had a meet and greet and get your registration packets starting at 4 at the Elks Lodge. I got there early thinking I would head home after signing in...ended up enjoying a beer with some folks from Montana and getting a bunch of freebies from reps from different paint companies. There was a nice spread of appetizers provided for us starving artists. I must say OPA has done a bang up job of putting all this together. It was fun meeting more new people and catching up with old friends.