Day Three

Day Three, Year Two

We go to Drift In Beach. It's supposed to be 98 and extremely high humidity but the clouds keep us comfortable until at least afternoon. It's pretty stifling in the port-o-potty. I stay under the pine trees because I know the sun may come out soon. I am working on two trees making a shape with the shore rocks. He had painted a beautiful buttery yellow shape in the sky and the blues and grays framing it, but I didn't really see it until he said buttery and put it into his painting.

I went to the General Store at Port Clyde and have a sandwich and I find another bottle of Red Truck wine. A new tradition has started. It is for Thursday night at the Lobster Pound.

We comment to each other how much information comes out of David as he teaches us. It feels overwhelming. You want it all. I take notes. Others do too, and some are sketching or painting while he demonstrates. But I realize that although he gives out more than I can understand, more than I can assimilate, he goes over some things many times, and that eventually I will learn if I just listen and watch, and then try to do it. I realize I understand better this year than last when he talks of building a painting from the back forward. I get his "architectural footprint" a little more this year.

When the sun comes out in the afternoon, it wants to change the look of my painting. David can remember the look and keep to his original plan, but I am a novice, and I want to keep changing my picture as the light, colors and shadows change. Again I do a tiny 3 by 5 painting while waiting for the bigger one to dry. There are lots of people on this small beach, lots of kids. I want to paint them but they are wiggley. David says make them wiggle, but the day is almost over and I finish my painting.

At critique many of us have tried to do what he is talking about rather than just going on painting the way we always do. I see more economy in others' paintings. He says mine is like yesterday's in this way. He talks about the negative space and shows how he would draw the painting outlining the negative spaces. I think, yes, that is how I did draw that painting, so I guess I did something right. I put buttery yellow in my sky too, but I think I was planning to go and add something else when it dried, but I never did. The water was too dark, but people still like it. They comment on the composition and tell me they like the one I did yesterday a lot.

The Lobster Festival started today, but I have no desire to go this year. Too crowded in the midway.