Summer En Plein Air Adventure at McMichael Gallery

Summer was a lot of fun this year !!! I really embraced painting outside. Every outing was fabulous , really , all of them !!!! One of the places I went was Kleinburg, Ontario. My friend Heather Munsie ( a very talented painter ) and I went up to McMichael Gallery . We participated in a juried Plein air event . There were 50 painters all together, but 5 of us chose a beautiful spot near the river. It was amazing . We joked around with each other all weekend and helped each other with critiques and camaraderie. Generally people try to be quiet since en Plein Air Painting is quite meditative, but there was just so much energy among us silence became super challenging. Just like high school students, our chatter and laughter kept erupting like popcorn. At one point , I noticed Doug's chair was rather close to the edge of the water . I debated saying something because , well Doug is a fully grown adult, not a 13 year old in the classroom , so I stayed quiet, and got back to painting. I also declared to myself that I would set a good example and be quiet , not even 1 minute after that thought , Doug and his chair began sliding off the bank into the river. It all seemed to happen in slow motion , and quite incredibly , Doug managed to hurl his painting back up onto the bank as he went into the water. Much chaos ensued as we all ran to see If he was ok. He had some scrapes and was quite wet, but both he and his painting seemed to be fine. After it was decided that Doug was indeed in one piece, laughter erupted like a volcano instead of popcorn and that was the end of any chance of silence that weekend.

Doug won a prize for that painting , and I placed in the top 15 . Both our paintings , are currently exhibited at the McMichael Gallery , a true honour !!!!!!

I will most definitely be returning next summer for more fun!!!!! This painting is called "The River" It is oil on canvas and 16" x 20"