Arrived on location a little past 10 am. The weather was dark and I anticipated rain later in the day. Around 11 am Margaret (fellow artist) showed up. I was very happy to see her arrive. We painted for hours. It was a hard subject to paint. All the detail was in the distant… so the detail was small.

photo taken by Margaret

The weather really turned late in the day. Margaret had to leave. She was working in water mixable oils, and her painting was washing away. She had to make a run for it. The rain was pissing down. Lightening was sounding the sky. Bring it on. Time to paint. Moments like this I live for. The rain was really coming down. My palette was a puddle.

photo taken by Margaret

later...

A drunk man (strong whiskey breathe / moon shiner) started passionately telling me to paint the water correctly. Everything had dramatically changed when the clouds had cracked open. And my bottom half of the painting was terrible.

Painting outside is like trying to paint a bird that is flying across the sky. It would be easier to shot the bird and paint a dead animal on a table than chase a moving cloud.

So I listened to the drunk man. I used my palette knife / removed the entire water section. He told me what to paint. He was correct. And so I did my best. In that moment the canvas reflected what the water was like before us. He was happy, wet and pretty excited. But I am not so sure. It all seems bullshit. But for a moment everything was clear. The rain stopped… or breaked.

Shortly after I returned home. Then the rain really started to come down. But I was having hot tea.