December brunch and still life painting

It was our last meeting of the year, with Christmas looming on the horizon, and yet the temperatures made it feel as though summer had returned. However we all still had holiday spirits as we gathered for our second annual holiday brunch and still-life painting session. This year we met at the Art Studio in St. Augustine Beach.

The Art Studio is located right on the beach! And it has plenty of free parking to boot. It was a perfect spot as it lent itself to outdoor plein air painting as well as the indoor still lifes.

Once again our President, Lyn Asselta, outdid herself with the wonderful feast she laid out for us - quiche and breads and fruit. All yummy. A special treat were the tangerines that Kay Deuben brought from the tree belonging to Jimmy Blackwell. Jimmy is a faithful attendee at our meetings but was hospitalized this week with pneumonia. We all signed a card for Jimmy, and we send him our love and prayers and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

We had a great turnout for the meeting and even had to scurry around for more chairs when it came time to sit down for brunch.

There was certainly more than enough for everyone to get their fill of food to fortify themselves for the painting session to follow.

Vice President Richard Lundgren and Treasurer Rick Petersen provided two different still lifes for members to choose between.

This is the still life that Richard set up.

And this is the still life that Rick set up. 

After brunch we had a break, and then got down to painting. Though with the weather so nice two of our members decided to go outdoors and paint. And who can blame them? But the rest of us enjoyed painting in the studio.

I'm not sure I got shots of everyone's paintings. I know I didn't see what the two outdoors painters did. Marie and Steve - I hope you will share what you did with us!

But here are shots of many of the paintings, all in various states of completion of course. It would be lots of fun to see them all as finished works.

These first two deserve special recognition because they are both TINY, done on supports that were only about postcard sized. Wow, amazing to get such great detail in such small spaces.

And here are shots of many of the rest, all done on more "normal" sized papers.

Happy holidays and Happy New Year everyone. We look forward to seeing you all again in January 2014. As always, stay tuned here for more details.