Crabapple Farm: Art Clinic Day 1

I had such a marvelous time at the art clinic. It was like stepping out of my reality into a completely new world. Golden Delicious and I were late, of course. We had to get everyone else on the road in Idaho Falls, finish packing up at 5 am, when my brain is very fuzzy, and then nurse the old suburban over to Cokeville, Wyoming.

The clinic was at the Dayton Family Ranch, aka Cottonwood Ranch. It was beautiful. We drove down a long, long lane and then stopped at an enormous puddle in the road. Was it safe? I tiptoed up to it. We would try it. No problem. Then came another even bigger puddle. Was it safe? It tiptoed up to it too. By this time Charles had sent his teenage son to rescue us, which was highly embarrassing and disruptive to everyone else who was obediently on time and trying to paint a horse.

We quickly unloaded our supplies and tried to act like we knew what we were doing.

We had one easel to share, and at the last minute I threw in the music stand. The music stand worked great. It is now covered with oil paint, but it was a life saver.

I sat down on my bench and saw this:

I stared at it forever. I have no drawing skills whatsoever. I didn't even know where to begin. Golden Delicious, meanwhile, is just jumping in and accurately drawing something.

All my attempts were so horrid, I erased them all. Charles took pity on me and did a little drawing 101 on how to measure, etc. Very helpful.

That afternoon we drove up the canyon to a series of waterfalls that were absolutely gorgeous. So amazing! It was also about 1,000 degrees and GD and I wanted to chuck the paints and leap into the water and cool off.

Charles traded me his easel and he used the music stand - you can see it works quite well, even for a professional :) (also I should note here that the Spy Twins HATE GD's hat... "Golden if you ever want to get a date with anyone get rid of that hat..." etc) It is a hilarious hat though, and came in very handy during the week.