trader's point creamery

afternoon scene...

morning scene..you have to turn sideways to view it since i don't have my photoshop stuff going at the moment....sorry....

#1 - first painting with david slonim in the morning...see below...

#2 - done in the afternoon with todd reifers...those are cows, by the way... #3 - a little cow study i did near the end of the day

after a wild night of huge storms...there was actually a fire in zionsville that took down a strip mall where everyone's favorite mexican restaurant was located...my son and grands went out with me for dinner and we stopped by the place to wish the fellow well...there were so many people driving by - lots of good wishes going his way and lots of prayers...but back to today...i wasn't sure we'd even get to head out but the rain stopped and the sun came out and the temperature rose and it ended up a glorious plein air day. there are 30 of us so c.w. came up with the idea to split the group in thirds and each instructor take a group for each session. i had david slonim in the morning and after i had a start on my first piece he came along and promptly told me to wipe most of it...too muddy - not enough clean color, value structure not holding..i could go on and on..a workshop is not place for the faint of heart, don'tcha know...i've been in some workshops where i've completed several pieces in a day because i like to work fast and loose but in this case i needed to learn to slow down, think about color, clean my palette often and i ended up with one painting. i photographed it, bugs and all, (actually they all have bugs on them..one of the trials of working en plein air...-you just pick them off when they're dried)..and i'll try to get these in context...ok so i couldn't...but you can see each painting and i apologize for the bad photographs. i think there was too much sun at the time. i had a great time today and learned a lot. tomorrow our group will be with c.w.mundy and i'm really looking forward to that. he's a hard taskmaster but he's funny - they all are, actually, and such wonderful instructors! i think we'll have him in the morning and then back to slonim. mundy is world famous, of course, and todd reifers is fast gaining notoriety but maybe people don't know that david slonim's painting from the IHA 2009 show was purchased as a permanent part of the brown county gallery's collection - quite an honor!...one last word about the trader's point creamery. they're located on moore road in zionsville and it's a family farm - they're really trying to instill a love of the land in future generations and welcome groups, families, etc....PLUS..they have the best ice cream you ever tasted! - at the end of the long hot day in the sun, they brought out several flavors of ice cream for us to enjoy and the restaurant was jam-packed at noon. i'd recommend it on so many levels...just watching the cows is a gas!!!!....or is that greenhouse gas???...more tomorrow so stay tuned! - i'm beat and heading to bed!