Last week I was in the area of Carmel-By-The-Sea painting in the annual plein air event. About 60 artists participate from all over the country. Our canvases are stamped on Wednesday night and we have until 8pm on Friday night to paint, paint, paint. The painting on my easel is almost done. It's a 16" X 12" canvas, that sold during the silent auction Saturday. I thought since the weather was so nice not too many artists would venture into the Carmel Valley to paint. Garland Park is the go to spot when fog has blown into town or when you want to paint the unusual view on a sunny day. Other the a few hikers I was all alone, thinking how lucky I was to be painting such a beautiful spot.
While I was painting on the deck for viewing the Pebble Beach Lone Cypress every 20 min. or so a tour bus would arrive, unloading people from around the world to view the tree. My photo with my painting will be all over China, Japan and India. Some people even took my paint brush and pretended to paint on my canvas for photographs. It was wild. I didn't paint the actual Lone Cypress because it is copyrighted by the Pebble Beach Corporation, so I painted looking north along the coast from the deck.
On Friday night all of the artists hung their 2 favorite paintings under the white tents on the panel with their names. If your paintings sold on Saturday you were allowed to hang 2 more on Sunday. I was a lucky lady and was able to hang 2 new paintings on Sunday.
Here is the finished painting of "Carmel Valley Afternoon", hanging on my wall. You can see that all of the artists must bring frames for their work, frame up the wet painting and hang the paintings on their walls quickly.
Pretty typical view at Point Lobos. We were encouraged to paint up and down the coast but Point Lobos offered such great views there really was no need to hunt around for another painting spot.
Here is my whole wall on Saturday. The bottom painting was painted at Cypress Cove, Point Lobos. Both paintings sold, so Sunday I hung new work and sold more.
After the quick draw all of the artists set up their easels in the park and offered the painting for sale by silent bid. Any artist that was awarded a ribbon was expected to participate in the quick draw. Unfortunately I didn't get one, so I was sidelined for the quick draw. My goal next year is to break the ribbon barrier and earn one because I love painting in quick draws.
Heading home down Highway One, the coastal views were stunning. I arrived home, happy, tired and ready for the next event. I'll be teaching a workshop in Lake Arrowhead the weekend of May 31, so now I am preparing and so excited to meet all the artists and teach them everything I know. Well, maybe not everything but all I can in 2 days.
