April 27, 2009
I thought I’d get out to Winter Park before the “Winter Park Paint Out” event. Artists from the area are invited to do plein air paintings during the first week of May. People are asking me if I’m one of them now and I keep telling them it hasn’t started yet.
Anyway, I wanted to do a painting of the Bosphorous restaurant before I
stayed away for a while. I love this restaurant, but it’s really hard to get a good view because of all the traffic and there’s parking in front of the restaurant. I was across the street and lucked out because there was a spot open right in front of the restaurant where a car couldn’t fit in. I had a perfect view except a car pulled up right in front of me on my side. I motioned for him to move up so that he didn’t block my view. He was so nice and pulled up and then got out and apologized for getting in my way.
We talked for a little bit and he asked me if I was part of the “paint out.” I told him I wasn’t one to those heavy weight water color painters and he said that I shouldn’t let that bother me. He said that if I thought what I was doing was good, then that’s all that mattered; that if I made a straight line and it had a beginning and an end, then that’s a completed work and I should be proud of it. He might be right, but I don’t think the painting would hold much interest for most people.
