Two days of painting from the model - what a treat! There were five of us; one had to cancel due to illness unfortunately. We painted and ate and commiserated. Wish I could do this more often. Samanda was the ideal model, holding perfectly still and never complaining of fatigue. I wish I had been in better painting mode! I bit off a lot to try for a two day session and was originally planning a full figure piece. Even chopping it down to three quarter figure was a bit too much. My toned canvas also was not quite dry so I had to contend with that. After so much planning I didn't get around to toning the canvas far enough in advance - hand slap to forehead. Still, I managed to start pulling it together by the second day and have enough photos taken to keep working on it.

What really counts is that there was connection and learning and fun for these two days. You cannot put a price on that. The music was wonderful and don't even get me started on the food. Everyone brought something and my husband, Bob, cooked up a storm, serving us like our own personal butler! How many husbands would do that? There was probably more food than we should have had in good conscience. No popcorn for the evening film...nobody had room. And we watched  "Seraphine"  the true story of a middle aged woman who painted in the early part of the 20th century in France. She was discovered accidently by a german collector who was renting some rooms in a house where Seraphine was the cleaning lady! He attempted to help her get established but World War One broke out and he had to escape France in a hurry. He found her later in 1927 and began to help her again but she was not mentally stable and she ended up in an asylum. Very sad. Her work was amazing though and she did have an exhibit a few years after she died. If you get a chance be sure to rent this video - hope you don't mind reading subtitles (it's in French).  If nothing else it makes one realize how much better off most of us are in our attempts to make art than so many have been. Any time I feel like whining I will try to remember scenes from this movie.

Thank you to my friends for making the trek up here to spend such quality time with me. Definitely have to do this again!