Return to the Delaware

Schools done and the nice weather is here so the DPC summer painting adventure is in full swing. Today the group ventured back along the Delaware river to the "Secret Spot" full of feral cats, blackberries, a few inebriated types with "Florida Chicken" on their minds and a crazy loud family who ended up destroying our set-up and trying our concentration an patience with their little dog named Doug.

We all spread out and searched for our spot to paint.

We hiked out onto one of the long abandoned piers which had a nice canopy of trees and great views, there were a tone of black berry trees and Alina and Lexi stopped and ate a bunch of them.

Soon we all picked our spat and started painting away. Will gets his paint on!

Lexi brought and old painting and used that to paint over today...

Alina concentrating...

David Wilson taking a cellphone break...

You never know exactly what you will find when going out painting in the Philly area, but you will always have drunk people show up at some point and try and help you paint which happened toward the end of our trip. This loud family showed up and tore down the trash-sail we were painting, they didn't even ask, they just came in like a wild bunch and set about being crazies--I looked up and it was gone. Next, what appeared to be the father of the group set about bring up large boards and logs and started banging on them as the wee dog and kids ran about screaming. You can see them running about as I paint....

I brought along the same kit I used last week when I went out and painted an Beaver Farms, and once I got my gear all set up I did a quick block-in and then with my Speedball roller and palette knife I blasted on the big shapes so I could then go back in and do the smaller work as the sun changed position. Things like the water changed a lot from the beginning of the paint to the final hour of painting, so I ended up repainting the water 3-4 times.

Goodbye cool trash sail! The family was soon followed by two guys that smelled like stale Budwiser, who spent 15 minutes trying to buy the dog from the crazy family,then crit and teach us how to paint as they made their way to each of our easels and inspected what we had and at the same time tried bargain for everything the family seemed to have by saying they'd be happy to trade them for the dog or some pot for some 'Florida Chickens", whatever those clucks might be....

Here is Will's painting, it was kind of hard to keep at it once our friends arrived on the scene.

here is Dave's awesome painting

Alina took a break before she had to leave...

Here is my painting and part of it was finished from memory after the crazies came. I was definitely thinking about Sargent, Sorolla and Edgar Payne, I just got a great new book on him this week. I had to force myself to slow down and think and not get distracted and either not really pay attention to how I was painting and get seduced too quickly by details. Having the Speedball roller is great for that--if I get too picky I just roll over that spot and repaint. Eventually the sun was too low and the crazies were too much so we packed it in. Next week we'll be back out to paint around the Philly area--so check back next week and watch out for those "Florida Chickens!"