LAST PAINTING OF 2009

"Catch It While You Can" 10" x 20" oil/c

Christmas has come and gone. I'm taking
the rest of the week to create
a few larger pieces. I am finding
this elongated format to be an exciting
one. This was one of those days where
the clouds are moving real fast and
the light patterns are constantly changing.


You look down at your palette to mix
paint for an area you think is in shadow
only to look up and find the same area
basking in bright sunlight. You mentally
have to commit to the scene and keep
it logged in as you paint and then ignore
the constantly changing light patterns.

It pays to have practiced the quick block
in back in the studio. It also helps to do
a quick pencil sketch where you indicate
shadow patterns or a digital shot with
the camera with a large viewer you can
refer to while you paint.

WESTERN ART COLLECTOR

My painting "Near Panther Creek"
was featured in the December issue
of Western Art Collector magazine.
The painting was part of an article
promoting the Plein Air Southwest
show which is now hanging at Southwest
Gallery here in Dallas.

click here to see show

PLEIN AIR SOUTHWEST

"Pigeon Highrise" 12" x 16" oil/c

Heading out of Amarillo on your way to
New Mexico are a series of historical
grain elevators. Most have been replaced
but a few remain. I hope we never lose them.












"Navajo Fortress: 10" x 20" oil/c

Where the Navajo tribe made its final
stand against the U.S. Calvary.
















"Near Panther's Creek" oil/c 9" x 12"

Big Bend National Forest






















"Elena Canyon" 9" x 12" oil/c

This weekend is the culmination
of a year-long paint-out. There were
four paint-outs held in different locations.
In order to participate in the juried show
you had to at least make one of the
paint-outs. I made two. I went to Big Bend
National Park here in Texas and
Canyon De Chelly in Arizona.

I have entered four paintings into the
competition. Tomorrow Gay Faulkenbery
will be judging the show and the awards
will be presented at the opening tomorrow
night.

Saturday Kaye Franklin, Fran Eliisor
and I will be doing demos during the show.
I haven't decided what to demo yet. Guess
I need to be making a decision.

FRESH OF THE EASEL

"Washout Patterns" 22" x 28" oil/c

Fresh of the easel ten minutes ago. This
is one of my entries for the Paint America
competition. I hope to get another one
done before the December 1st deadline.

Canyon De Chelly is well known for the flash
floods that fill the bottom of the canyon.
Unfortunately when I was there in
September we had no rain so the standing
water in the painting is made up.

This is the first of several large Canyon
paintings I will be doing this year. The subject
matter is so interesting with all of the
overlapping canyon patterns and reflected
light bouncing everywhere.

I can see why it became a favorite
subject for Edgar Payne.

COLLECTORS COVEY SHOW RESULTS

Last Friday was the Collectors Covey Miniature
Show. A good crowd was on hand, better than
last year I might add. Buyers were more than
pleased with the overall quality of the show.















The warm atmosphere of the gallery
provides ample opportunity for artists to
mingle with buyers. I found the collectors
to be most approachable and more than
willing to discuss their likes and dislikes
of pieces.

I also had plenty of time to talk to artists
that I admire like Ken Carlson and
Luke Frazier. Of course looking at great art
is the main attraction. Where else can you
go in north Texas and see Clyde Aspevig,
Matt Smith, Len Chimel, Kyle Sims and
Frank Serrano?
















They say "you are known by the company
you keep". If that's true then I'm in pretty
good company. My painting is the one in
the middle on the right. The two paintings
on the left are both Clyde Aspevig's.

COLLECTORS COVEY Part II

"Fall Foliage" 8" x 10" oil/c

Here's my second painting. This is one
of those plein air pieces that keeps you
awake at night. Not because it was a
difficult piece but because it was so simple.

Every stroke had a purpose. Every stroke
went down like it had a mind of its own.
Every stroke sat down perfectly next to
another. An in an hour, POOF...its done.

Then you lie awake that night wondering
why all other paintings are so difficult
and how the heck do you repeat the process?

COLLECTORS COVEY MINIATURE SHOW

"Sure Cast" 11" x14"

Here is one of my paintings that will be
up for grabs at tonight's Collectors Covey
Miniature Show. There is a moment during
a cast when your fly is behind your head and
you have made the forward pull to place
the fly in an exact presentation. Briefly
you know the cast is perfect even before
the fly ever lands on the water. All you do is
wait for the strike you know is going to come.

I call it "feeling the tug". Flyfishing is the
purest form of fishing. The feel of the water
against your waders and the smell of a
mountain stream full of fish all add up to
a great day outdoors. But it is the "feel
of the tug" when a trout has chosen your
fly as its next morsel that makes it all
worth while.

SEASON OF MINIATURE SHOWS

Collectors Covey Miniature Show

This is my fourth year to be in the
Collectors Covey show. It is one of my
favorite shows due to the strength
of talent that exhibits each year.
Wildlife artists Bob Kuhn, Ken Carlson,
Ralph Oberg, Tim Shinabarger,
Sandy Scott, Brian Grimm and
Jim Morgan always offer premier work.
Landscape artists Clyde Aspevig,
Matt Smith, Len Chimel, Chuck Rawle,
Jimmy Dyer, Kenny McKenna and
Frank Serrano generate a lot
of interest in small landscapes.

click here for more information




















Whistle Pik Christmas Miniature Show

This is my first year to be invited
into this prestigious show. I'm excited
to be exhibiting my work along side
David Leffel, Sherry Sandler, Cheri
Christensen, Ann Hardy, John Cook,
Michael Albrechtsen and Walt Gonske
to name a few.

I will post the paintings I'm showing
in each show next tomorrow.


click here for more information

"BERNIES" WINS PEOPLE'S CHOICE

My Quickdraw painting "Bernies" from
my previous post won the People's Choice
Award at the Coastal Paintout last weekend
held in Port Aransas. The gallery
opening was well attended which gave
collectors a good opportunity to meet the artists.

All-in-all a good time, nice people
and great painting location.

QUICKDRAW AT PORT A

"Bernies" 9"x12" oil/c

Today was the Quickdraw. I chose to
paint a famous local eatery known
as Bernies. Rick Pratt, the Port A Gallery
owner announced the beginning of the
Quickdraw by playing bagpipes as his
wife and co-owner, Cameron, drove
him around the parking lot in a fully
restored MG convertible.

Fifteen minutes into my painting three
trucks parked right in front of me completely
blocking my view. It was too late to find
a new location so I had to walk around
the trucks, observe the scene, walk
back to my easel and paint. Add to
that the fifty or so people who stopped
to watch me paint and I had one heck
of challenge on my hands. Its safe
to say that this was the toughest
Quickdraw I've ever done.

PORT A DAY TWO

"Caldwell Pier" 9"x12" oil/c

Good day painting today. Put six
paintings in the box. Painting today
was easier than yesterday. Sorry for
the bad picture. I'll reshoot the paintings
tomorrow under better light.

PORT ARANSAS PAINTOUT

"Bungalow" 6"x8" oil/c

I'm in Port Aransas, TX this
weekend taking part in a
three-day paintout. There will
be a Quickdraw on Saturday
and a reception and opening
Saturday night.Today
I spent most of the day in the
town of Port Aransas doing
small paintings. Completed
three worthy of showing
and two wipe-offs. Kind of
a so-so day. Finished the day
with a shrimp barbeque
get together with all the artists.
I'll try to post agaain tomorrow.

CANYON DE CHELLY

"Canyon Reflected Light" 9"x12" oil/c

If you ever want to really challenge
yourself I highly recommend
Canyon De Chelly. There is light
bouncing everywhere and determining
where the light is coming from, then
deciding how it plays in the grand
scheme of the painting is a real mind
boggler. The canyon walls receive their
light from the sun above, the reflected
light from the ground and then from
other canyon walls that are near by.

I chose a simple design for this piece and
let the power of the light take over. I even
threw in a fourth light source coming
down the canyon lighting up the yellow
grass at the base. If I had chosen a
more complex design, the play of light
would have been wasted.

This piece will be available at the Whistle
Pik Miniature show next month.

BACK FROM ARIZONA

"Red Rock Study" 6"x8' oil/c

This should actually be called the
"Study That Almost Wasn't" because I got
run off three times before I was able to finally
set up and paint. West of Albuquerque and
before you get to Gallup, NM there are these
wonderful red rock mountains that run along
the highway for about twenty miles. I'm sure
John Wayne has spent a movie or two on
location here.

I set up once and got run off by an
older gentleman yelling Spanish at me.
I don't speak the language but I knew he
wasn't happy with my presence so
I packed up my gear and left. I tried to
ignore the mountains and painting potential,
but couldn't so I pulled over and set up again
on a little side road. Wasn't long before
another pick up truck pulled up and
stopped a few feet from where I was painting.

The driver got out of his truck, spit at
the ground and mumbled something
under his breath as he approached my
location. "Gotta gun?" he asked.
"No" I replied. "Ain't safe to be here
if you don't have a gun. If I was you
I'd mosey on." Sounded like good advice
so I packed up my gear a second time
and "mosied" on down the highway
some more.

Unable to ignore the red rocks I got
about three miles down the road and
pulled into a rest stop figuring this
would be a safe place to paint from.
I was wrong. I had just put down my first
red wash when a highway patrolman
pulls up, red and blue lights flashing.
Same story...third verse. I packed up again
and off down the road I went.

Finally, just before reaching Gallup I
found a secluded spot off the highway under
a tree. Twenty minutes later I had
my very first red rock mountain painting.
I went on to produce 18 paintings over four
days at Canyon De Chelly to go with
three paintings from Palo Duro Canyon
and a couple of grain elevators I found
outside of Amarillo, Texas. I
will be posting most of the paintings
here over the next week.

FARMHOUSE

"Farmhouse" 9" x 12" oil/c

Throughout central Texas farmhouses such
as this one are everywhere and make great
subjects. This one is on highway 290 as you
come out of Johnson City heading towards
Fredericksburg. I happen to catch it late in
the day as the summer sun was baking
the west wall.

I'm off the Arizona today, stopping at
Palo Duro Canyon along the way. Taking
the laptop and hope to post a few paintings
from the trip.

ANOTHER FISHING STORY

"Bones on the Edge" 12" x 16" oil on canvas

Bone fishing is one of the most challenging
forms of flyfishing. Here in Texas we
track down redfish in a similar fashion
by wading in ankle to knee deep water
looking for fish "tailing" which just means
we can see the tips of their tails as they
cruise along feeding as they go.

When you find a school of bonefish or reds
presenting a fly to them without disturbing
their feed is an art form. The water is
so shallow and clear the fish
are easily spooked. The reward is
fighting fish that is all muscle and
knowing you have elevated your flyfishing
skills to a new level.

Painting available at Collectors Covey

A GOOD DAY FISHING

"Pile Cast" 12" x 16" oil on canvas

If I can't be outside painting please
put a flyrod in my hand and show
me the nearest body of water. The
toughest day painting isn't when the
bugs are out of control or the weather
has driven you from a great painting
location, its when you are in the middle
of painting a stellar piece and you hear
the unmistakable sound of fish rising
when they hit the surface chasing food.

Now I'm really stuck. Paint....no fish...
no paint...dangit fish...no paint because
the light is changing...no fish because soon
they will stop biting....no you came to
paint you fool!

I've learned to leave the flyrod home
when painting. That way I have eliminated
the argument a together.

Painting available at Collectors Covey

PEARCE MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART

"Hill Country Longhorns"

Awhile back the Pearce Museum of
Western Art purchased this painting to
hang in its permanent collection in
Corsicana, Texas. I recently stopped in
to see the painting. I entered the museum
and was astonished by the collection that
includes paintings by Bill Anton, Howard
Terpning, James Bama, Nelson Boren,
Paul Calle, Z.S. Liang, Tom Lovell, Jason
Rich, Kenneth Riley, Kathryn Stats and
G. Harvey to name a few.

I wandered from room to room amazed by
the art and then I turned the corner and
there sandwiched between an Andy Thomas
and a Jason Rich was my painting.















Andy Thomas on the left















Jason Rich on the right

It was kind of an odd experience to be in
the same company as the some of the
best known artists in the business. I've
been in plenty of shows, but never a
permanent collection that people actually
pay good money to see. I'm down right proud
to be a part of it.

DESERVES A SECOND LOOK

"Badlands Cliffs" 9" x 12" oil

This is one of those drive-by scenes that
happen when you are in a hurry to get to
a painting location but you stop along the
way to take pictures because you see
something interesting but don't have
the time to stop, set up the paintbox
and devote two hours to the scene.

Then later in the studio as you are
downloading pictures to the computer
and editing out the redundant pictures
one kind of pops out at you. This is one
of those scenes. I didn't think much of
it as I drove by it, but stopped anyway
and snapped a picture.

I am painting at Canyon de Chelly in September
and need to practice painting large rock
formations so I thought this would be a good
practice piece. Darned if it didn't turn out
to be a rather nice piece.

NOW ON EBAY

"Copper Oranges" 6" x 8" oil

I have put this painting on Ebay. I haven't gone
as far as opening an Ebay store yet, but it is
in the works. To bid on this piece click on the
"My Ebay Store" link in the Links section found
on the right side of the blog. I have solicited
help from other Ebayers and will
get the kinks worked out this week.

Happy bidding!

WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE

"Estes Runoff" oil

You can tell its hot here in Texas by
the things I choose to paint. Water, snow
or anything that will get my mind off how
hot it is outside.

On my last trip to Estes Park
my good friend, Bruce Peil, and I hiked up
to Loche Vale. On the way were a series of
runoffs with waterfalls. Not as dramatic as
I made this one to be, but waterfalls just the same.

I could sit on the rocks and just listen to the
sound of the rushing water all day. It is
such a cerebral experience compared to the rest
of the time I spend painting in Texas.

JUST ON THE FRINGE

"Water Supply" 12" x 16" oil plein air

This is one of the three barns I painted
last week. I painted this barn from the other
side as well. On the other side is a field
of fresh hay bales and as anyone knows, hay
bales have become a favorite subject
matter of mine. I'll post the other paintings
soon.

This one took longer than expected, almost three hours
instead of the two hours I will usually commit to a
plein air piece. I will typically steer away from a scene
that has this many elements in it. I try to limit
plein air work to three elements. This one has five
and that pushes the limit of my comfort zone.
There's a lot of architecture and that just takes longer
than other types of landscapes, plus I painted
it on a larger scale, 12" x 16" instead my standard
9" x 12". All-in-all I was uncomfortable the whole time I
was painting it, but in the end I'm glad I stuck to it
and finished the piece.

QUICKIE

"Orange Tea" 6" x 8" oil

Spent the morning doing field sketches of barns.
Came back in the studio and needed to do a warm
up before jumping into a larger studio piece.
Limited myself to a 30 minute still life. I liken
these to the gesture poses we used to do
in life drawing back in college. They get
the juices flowing and before doing a studio
piece, helps loosen me up because the studio
work gets too tight too quick.

TRYING TO FIND THE GROOVE

"Chasm Falls" 10" x 20'

I can thank Steve Atkinson,
www.steveatkinsonstudio.blogspot.com,
for giving me the appropriate kick in the butt
to get this painting done. I've had it sketched
out on a canvas and sitting in the corner
of the studio for about six months. During the
summers when its 106 degrees outside
and I'm stuck inside doing paintings of
apples, I get the doldrums and don't feel much
like painting. Steve comes along and posts
his painting "Simple Beauty" on his blog and
it just blows me away.

Next thing you know I've got "Chasm Falls" on
the easel and two hours later....done. Steve's
painting of an aspen grove probably in the
Rocky Mountains somewhere reminded me of
my trips to Estes Park and that's all it took
to snap me out of the summer funk. I've
already got three more paintings sketched
out and can't wait to get started.

DAILY

"Pair of Pears" 6" x 8" oil on canvas

I've gotten back into doing dailies. These
small paintings are really helping me
with brushwork and seeing colors in
shadows. When painting outdoors, especially
on a bright day, your iris of the eyes tend
to close down because of the bright reflections
coming off the ground. Seeing colors in
the shadows becomes difficult so I tend to
overdo these areas. Then back in the studio
or, worse yet, when framed and hung in
the gallery the colors jump off the canvas
when you really want them to be more subdued.

Brushwork is a constant fight between not enough
and too much. I'm finding the dailies painted in
30 minutes or less force me to make better
brushwork decisions. Now I'm anxious to
find out if I can carry this over into the plein
air work first and then the bigger canvases.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN FEELING

"Hillside Rock Slide" 8" x 10" oil on canvas

My last two trips to Colorado have been
in the Fall so I'm use to ground cover
being a bit grayish. I'm expecting more
lush grasses this month when I
reach Ouray. This landscape is actually
the combination of two different
photo references from my Estes Park
trip.

BACK IN THE GROOVE

"Fall Foliage" 8" x 10" oil on canvas

I've been away for a few weeks and just
this week got back into the studio. The
last month has been a blur and its nice
to return to painting. My younger brother
just lost his battle to cancer and has taken
up new residence in a better place. I've
been helping my parents with his care
and was with him when he took his last
breath. So now its time to heal and
move on with life and for me that includes
celebrating nature with paint.

As is my custom when I get ready to take
a trip I use studio time practicing painting
the subject matter I am about to go see.
I have a trip to Colorado planned with
the Outdoor Painters Society in July so
the next couple of weeks will be spent
preparing myself for the trip, painting
larger studio pieces for the galleries and
doing the daily paintings. Nuff rambling
for now. Will post again tomorrow.

AIRSTREAM

"Airstream in the Desert" 12" x 16" oil

This Airstream trailer struck me as
an odd image in the middle of the
desert. Its sleek shape and shiny
exterior stood in direct contrast to
the surrounding rugged desert terrain.

I tried to paint it on location, but the
wind and dust were blowing so hard
I couldn't find a spot to set up. I tried
to use my jeep to block the wind and
provide some shade, but sometimes
the best intentions go unrewarded.
So I had to settle for a photograph
from which I did the painting.

DAILY #7

"Lope" 6" x 8" oil

The best part of this painting was eating
the cantelope when I got done. Went
out this morning to do some plein air
work. After two wipe-offs I decided
maybe my time would be better
spent in the studio. So I fixed this
bowl of fruit, painted it and ate it. Beats
a bad day in the field anytime.

DAILY #6

"Flower Pattern" 8" x 10" oil

This time of year it is not unusual
to find me in a neighbor's yard with
my plein air setup doing a study like
this one. I do not have a green thumb,
but I have plenty of neighbors who do
and, I think, they like it when I stop
by and ask if I can paint their flowers.

GOATS

"Goat Barn" 9" x 12" oil

This little goat barn is right around the
corner from my house. I drive past it
several times every week. The Boer goats
no longer occupy the barn and the property
is marked for demolition any day now.
I painted the barn plein air and added
the goats in the studio.

I must not be a good goat painter because
when my good friend Bob Rohm saw the
painting he joked, "So what are all those
Springer Spaniels doing in the barnyard."

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2009 DAILY

"Fruit Bowl" 6" x 8" oil

Thought I would go ahead and post
this because I am having laser surgery
on my right eye later today. I have a
tear in my retina that the good doctor
is going to close with a few well-placed
zaps of a laser. He says its nothing serious,
but lasers being shot into my eye sounds
like serious to me. So just in case I am
out of commission later and can't get a
painting done, here's today's
piece. Enjoy.

NEW WEEK, NEW DAILIES

"Copper Orange" 6" x 8" oil

Its a new week of daily painting and
a new week to push paint. Life is grand.
Have to take time this week to do some
studio work, but plan to keep producing
the daily work as a warm up. I'm
finding it to be a great start of the day.

I have my painting time down to 30 minutes.
I don't do many still lifes, but
this has given me some motivation
to try a larger piece. We'll see how
things go as the week progresses.

Went to the InSight Gallery grand
opening last weekend in Fredericksburg.
Got to meet some very talented artists
including Carol Anderson, Joan Potter,
C. W. Mundy and Mark Haworth. Took the
time to visit with painter friends Chuck
Rawle, Kay Northrop, Jill Carver and
Nancy Bush. Food was great, art was
unbelievable and conversation entertaining.

BUDDY

"Buddy" 18" x 24" oil

This is a painting of one of my best
friends in the whole world. He could
care less if I just painted a real stinker
or if I'm just having a bad day. He sleeps
in this big chair as I paint. On this
day he would doze off, I would call his
name. He would give me this glazed over
expression. He would slip back into a
deep sleep only to have me wake him
by calling his name. This went on for about
two hours as I painted him. He finally got
fed up and moved to the couch in another room.

NEW DAILY PAINTING

"Mugs" 6" x 8" oil

This daily thing is an interesting
exercise. I am trying to keep painting
time down to 45 minutes or less so I
don't fuss around too much and
make quick decisions about color, edges,
design and all those things I think
about in a larger painting.

Won't be posting tomorrow. Gotta go pick
up my son from college for the summer.
Once I get five paintings posted I will
be starting an Ebay page. Something
to look forward to.

PUSHING COLOR

"The Play of Color" 12" x 16" oil

Recently I have begun to really
push the color in my work. Those
who know me know I studied
with Scott Christensen and Matt
Smith a couple of times each. Two
of the best landscape painters in
the country, but not known
for intense color. My goal is to push
it a little outside my comfort zone
for a bit and then bring it back
into what I hope will be a palette
that I will stay with for a while.

Painting late afternoon scenes like
this will help the process because the
light is more intense in both the warm
sunlit areas and the cool shadow areas.
We'll see how it goes.

NEW DAILY

"Lemons in My Cereal Bowel" 6" x 8" oil

OK, so a painting every day is going to
be a tough road to hold. I'm going to have
to have weekends off. I set up a
permanent still life station in the corner
of my studio and dropped by a local
market to pick up fruit and flowers for
the next few paintings. I am a man on a
mission. This feels good.

Don't really know if there are any rules
about this, but I will be posting landscapes
as well. It is not in my personality to just
paint still lifes. At heart, I am a landscape
painter. That's what really gets me going,
so throwing in a landscape here and there
will keep me interested in this daily
painting experiment.

JUMPING OFF THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF

"Tea Time" 6" x 8" Oil

After much back and forth in my own
mind about daily painting I have decided
to jump off the cliff and make it happen.

Part of it comes from seeing how quickly
artists like Qiang Huang and Carol Marine
have grown after following their blogs for
the last six months. You can go back to
their previous blogs from a year ago when
they first started daily painting and see how
much their work has matured.

The other part is I just bought Kevin
MacPhearson's book "Reflections on a Pond"
where he painted the same scene out the
window of his studio for a year. Kevin is a
master painter whose work I have admired
for years, but even his work changed as the
year went by and he produced painting after
painting for a year.

One of my goals this year is to be able
to produce larger, finished (yea right) plein
air pieces. I think this will help me produce
larger studio pieces while maintaining that
loosey goosey plein air feel to the work.

So this post is the first of my daily paintings to
be followed by 364 more until this time next
year. We will see where it takes my work and
whether or not I get the results I am seeking.

BIG BEND REVISITED

"So Much Color, So Little Time"
12" x 16" Studio oil

Talk about a challenge. Bright late afternoon
warm sunlight hitting the face of the
canyon against the cool purplish-blue
shadows. Throw in the bright orange reflected
light bouncing off the ground into
the under belly of the canyon wall and
you have a painter's dream and nightmare
all at the same time.

I did a 6" x 8" study on location which really
defined the larger studio piece. There is
no way a camera can capture the wide
range of values in this landscape. The
location study saved me...once again!

CHANGE OF SCENERY

"Weekend Jolly" 12" x 16" Plein Air Oil

I'm still on a Big Bend high and am still
producing paintings from my trip from
two months ago. Traveled to a local
lake and painted this sailboat
yesterday just to get a change of pace.

Now that I see it on screen I think I'll
go in and adjust the water color to a
yellower-greener color typical of Texas
coastal waters instead of the lake color
I depicted. I'll repost the newer version
after this one dries and I've made the
adjustment.

It's been over a month since I was last
in my studio. Feels great to be producing
a couple of larger pieces.

WORKSHOP PAINTINGS

"Day's Done" 8" x 10"



"Poppy" 8" x 10" oil



"Salado Barn" 8" x 10" oil

Here are three of the nine paintings
I produced over three days at the
Jill Carver Workshop in Salado.
The workshop was put on by
the Andreeva Academy...check
them out.

In a workshop I tend to push myself
into new directions and try to
take some risks. If they work out
great...if not...nothing lost. I took
this workshop primarily because
Jill Carver was teaching and, more
importantly, painting.

I've painted with Jill before, but I've
always been consumed with producing
my own piece without really paying
attention to what she was doing. But
her results have always blown me away
and I wanted the opportunity to just watch
her paint. I did and it was definitely worth
it, but I got so much more.

It will be the little things when added to
my work will make a huge difference
in the finished pieces.

My wife, Tracy, went with me which was
a first for us because I get so intense
during workshops. We stayed in a
turn of the century log cabin bed and
breakfast place. Had the gourmet breakfasts
and everything. We had a great time to boot.