And the Fall is now here

We had our first meeting of the season this past Saturday, and what an exciting meeting it was. The Southeast branch of the St. Johns library system has a wonderful meeting room with great light. It's easy to get to and has plenty of parking, so drew members from all around. We were all excited to see one another after the summer hiatus, and eager to hear the presentation about Caran d'Ache pastels and products.

There was a great display laid out of many of their products - dry pastels, oil pastels, pastel pencils, watercolor pencils (great for underpainting), etc.

We had twenty one attendees at the meeting, one of our best turn-outs ever, including several new members attending their first meeting.

Our speaker was Stephan Lohrer from Caran d'Ache. He was an engaging speaker, and had samples of goodies to give to all of us. Many of us were impressed with the care about health and environmental issues that Caran d'Ache puts into developing their products.

After the presentation Stephan gave us all time to come up front and play with the products to try them out.

We also had exciting news for the group. We have taken out a group membership at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach, and this will enable us to have some of our meetings there, and to hold a juried show on their premises. Our next group meeting will be held there in November, and we will have a juried show there as well in 2014.

But first up for the group will be our first plein air paint-out for the season at Camp Chowenwaw Park in Green Cove Springs. The next blog post will provide more details.