It started out perfect. Gorgeous day, awesome location, my amazing tribe of painting friends....couldn't have asked for more. I finished my painting and proceeded to the critique where all went quite well. My friends offered some friendly and helpful advice and I was eager to make the simple suggested improvements. I headed back to my setup.
I was about 10 feet away and I noticed that the umbrella that I had left up and attached to the easel had moved and thought how lucky that it had not knocked the whole thing over. THEN - the wind blew again and KNOCKED THE WHOLE THING OVER!!
I paint in pastel, so the whole thing going over is no small issue. My fairly large assortment of pastels went flying everywhere - in the tall grass I had been standing in next to the ditch full of water. Luckily, none of them went into the water. I proceeded to pick them all up - thinking, well at least I now have a good reason to clean each one and reorganize my box, which I proceeded to do.
THEN, my friends dog decided to join me and walked right through the mess of pastels.... ok - well it is his yard after all.... I continued with the chore. THEN the dog decided to take a little dip to cool off and of course shook herself right next to me; covering me, my painting, and my pastels with the water!
I couldn't do a thing but laugh. I love plein air painting. You never know what adventure will await you. It really was a wonderful day and I would do it all over again. I salvaged the painting and I now have a nice clean and organized box of pastels for my next foray.
