I went on the Lopez Island Paint out. Had a great time and have lots of digital pictures for future works when the weather goes south! Bob and I went early (left late in the day July 5th- and happily were not held up by the yahoo who backed his car off the ferry into the water at Anacortes!)

We stayed at Lopez Is Farm Cabins- very quiet, cute, and they had refer and microwave so we could do breakfast in cabin and pack a lunch each day. It poured Tuesday am- but cleared later in the day- I did the piece at Agate bay. The wind was blowing and my eyes were streaming- needed goggles!  Next day threatened rain- but it looked sunnier to the west, so we took a day trip on the ferry to San Juan Island.  Tried to paint at a lavender farm there- only to have the wind come up and lift my easel (shelf, pastels and all) off the ground and dump everything.  A tad discouraging- we did sneak back on Saturday (before the art show) and I got more time to paint. Thursday, everyone showed up from NPS. We painted at the end of Fisherman Bay (a bit of wind- so I did a small study!) first- then went to a second spot near the mouth of the bay and took lots of pictures. Later we went to the south end (near Paul Allens place) and in spite of large mosquitoes, got a good start on my "Queen Madrona"- really a noble tree! Friday am we met at the bakery and then headed for a lovely cove- very Lopez with view of farm and shore. The lighting was flat, but it does capture the essence. I used silver hard pastel to add detail to the pine- it doesn't photo as silver though.