En Plein Air

I like publicizing my life. I have no idea why. Maybe I'm egotistical, maybe I just like thinking someone's reading, or maybe I just like comments. Of course it might just be that I like writing and it's fun to share my thoughts through some forum or another.

Whatever the reason, I'm back in the blog-o-sphere...we'll see how long it lasts.

It's strange how my last post was when I was living in Iowa looking for a job, because guess what! I am once again, in Iowa, looking for a job. It's like I'm living in Yeat's ever "widening gyre", but minus the blood and anarchy and all that.

I've applied for one dream job with RZIM as an "executive assistant," but it's been two weeks and I've heard nothing. At all. So, hope's waning.

Otherwise I've applied for gobs of things, mostly high school English teacher, teaching assistant, and marketing and publicity assistant for a publishing house, about 6-7 jobs in all. But so far everything has been full or silent.

This was depressing, but since my stay in Iowa is looking a bit longer than I originally thought, I decided to start enjoying what this little lake resort area has to offer.

This week, that was a plein air painting contest. It's been a bit nerve wracking, because I haven't painted since I left for Gabon in 2008. I got everything set up to paint when I came back, slowly finding things in boxes from Mom and Dad's move to Fort Dodge, IA. Then I realised I couldn't find my paints. I have no idea what I did with them, but it's hard to paint without paint. And then stuff happened and BAM I was suddenly in Abu Dhabi and did a bunch of crazy stuff, worked like it was going out of style and then decided to come home.

Of course, Mom and Dad had moved again, to Milford, IA. Which meant the digging through boxes was on again. The painting contest gave me a good reason to really find everything though and get going again.

Sunday I went and got a pile of canvases and canvas boards stamped for the contest (proof they were white at the start). Monday started day one for painting.

I went out on 71, to this little creek we drive past all the time on the way to Spencer (where Dad works, and where stuff is). I set up and painted all day.

Lots of people came by. I talked to a construction worker. Someone who wanted to take a picture and was back in Iowa visiting his grandmother. The guy who owned the land stopped and told me about his landscaping dreams for the area that he was glad he hadn't acted on since the flooding probably would've destroyed them all. He also suggested I go up on the hill I was painting and paint the scene from up there. Then an artist/art teacher stopped. I got a few pointers and he invited me to come by his studio sometime to chat or to do some lessons.

After talking to the artist I was depressed, because my painting suddenly looked worse, and he said he could show me some things to do the same painting in 2 hours....and I'd been working for 5. So I finished that one up and moved to another vantage point the artist had mentioned and did another. This one was done in 2 hours and it was much better.

Day 2

I drove around randomly. Headed towards...actually, I don't even remember. It was gloomy. I found a park and some water. But honestly, I was tired of green trees, green grass, greenish water, and graywhite skies.

As I left the park thinking about just going home, directly across from me was a quirky little antiques shop. It was red and green and crowded with flowers and knick-knacks around the front. I pulled in and asked the owner if I could paint her store. She gave me a weird look, and I stumbled around my brain trying to figure out how to explain that I wanted to make a painting and not actually paint the building. Eventually, we got it sorted out.

The owner was super sweet. She'd come over to see how it was doing and try and force soda on me after each customer left. The customer's were amusing. They would slowly pull in, looking over my shoulder, and then go in the shop. When they came back out, they'd all come over and look. People driving by, both days would honk. Which would make me jump out of my skin. It was nice of them to say "hi" though. I love painting, but quite frankly, it get's lonely. I don't like being on my own more than about 5 minutes.

Day 3

I headed over to a frame shop to get my first three paintings ready to hang. There was a bike shop right there and I needed to make an appointment to get my bike tuned up, so I stopped in there too. I was decided to stop back at the creek I painted on day 1 to see how things looked from up on the hill. I pulled off, wandered through grass as tall as me and was careful to steer clear of the bee hives. I took a lot of pictures. There were a ton of wild flowers on the hill and it was pretty. But getting my easel set up and managing to not fall down the hill all day sounded like a bit much for day 3. So I just took pictures. Then I walked across the road to take some photos of some cows for a painting later. The plan was to head over to Arnold's Park, a theme park from the '50s along one of the lakes and surrounded by little tourist shops, docks, and beaches. But my car decided to get stuck. Yup, my wheel dug in completely to the gravel while my poor little car teetered on the steep bank. Oh boy. Just then someone in a pick up truck drove by and slowed down.

Now I may be a city slicker, but I know that guys with pick up trucks who slow down when you're stuck are probably good luck. Sure enough, this poor guy crawled all around my car, got out his chains and pulled me out...and I almost rear ended him in return because I didn't realize he was done pulling me and my car was just cruising backwards into him. Despite my cluelessness and the guy's friend standing in front of me yelling to break (not sure why that didn't sink in) tragedy was bypassed. We all ended up free from dents (or massive hood re-arrangement) and I was free!

So I set off for Arnold's Park, walked around. More photos. Found some pretty docks, set up and painted for a few hours. It turned out pretty well. No one really talked to me. A few 20 second conversations, but the lack of conversation made it feel longer. The painting went fast though and I had time to swing by the frame shop and pick up my finished works along with a frame for the one I just finished.

Tomorrow I just have to put today's picture in it's frame and then turn them all in to the Gallery. There will be an opening show tomorrow with all the artists and the judging. It should be really neat. I don't think my are that great, but they got me painting again and I'm excited about the artist contact and the chance to improve some things. It will be neat to meet the other artist's and see their works. I'm just hoping there will be a nice little gradient of quality and that they aren't all professional level artists and then me. Either way though, it was fun stuff!

I'll let you know how the opening goes soon!