PICTURES. In chronological order
Seattle with sun beams. Show off.
The ferry ride over - very pleased after watching a seagull trip and fall
cold
Langley, the cutest damn town, with pumpkins just thrown all the hell over it
flippin brambles of berries all over the place, like a storybook
Monica, the Anthes Ferments restaurant hostess
Phenomenal Meal #1: crab and cheese Welsch rarebit
Elizabeth Zanzinger's morning demo
my easel on the first day
My first painting was... not so good. But I learned a lot.
flippin bunnies EVERYWHERE
Elizabeth Zanzinger's wall of past demos
Phenomenal Meal #2: clams at the Prima Bistro
My top bunk nest
FIRE
Holly! I think!
Second morning of painting: my underdrawing
And then in the afternoon I ruined it a bit
Consolation
Further consolation
Me and Elizabeth Zanzinger
Phenomenal Meal #3: Eggs Benedict with curried oysters, wild mushrooms, and bacon at the Braeburn restaurant
The view as I walked my buns off every morning
Last day of painting: my underdrawing
The model liked it, so I count it as a win.
Elizabeth Zanzinger's painting of the same model
The painting I bought from Elizabeth. I love it so much.
Realizing I was experiencing maybe the happiest moment of my adult life, I snapped a picture of my walk back to the airbnb to catch the moment. It was a poorly lit moment, but there it is.
Ferry ride back to Seattle - SO WINDY
Non-phenomenal Meal #4: Sea-Tac airport Wendy's chicken sandwich and sad coffee
Airport terminal gouache bunny
More Langley bunnies, which I painted while crammed between two sleeping men on the absurdly tiny plane
Elizabeth Zanzinger's painting is hanging in the living room where I can see it as I sit on the couch with my tea, and I'm going to stare at it until my brush strokes are as soft and decisive and full of color as hers.
(Oh, and I lost 4 lbs. Phenomenal meals ftw!)
Your pictures are great. And it's so awfully hard to come home after the most precious times, isn't it? I sobbed after our trip to Alaska a few years ago. How could I give up all those days of beauty, and of feeling fully awake and alive? I'm glad you posted a pic of the painting you bought -- was dying to see it. Her broad strokes are so wonderfully expressive. (I don't get the blank spaces -- but I do know I know *nothing* about art.)
ReplyDeleteOh, Alaska would be all these lovely things, magnified! The mountains and cold and animals and food. It's so sad to come home again, even when home is perfectly nice.
ReplyDeleteThe blank spaces are just because that's how far she got in an hour. When she ran out of time she stopped and left it alone, and I love it because it shows every step of a painting before they're all covered up - the line work, the drippy first wash of shadow, the strokes of main color, the expressive eye. She signed it for me and said goodbye to the picture, she was fond of it. Really wonderful person.