Spring Park - another awesome day

When you plan for a plein air event months in advance you never know what you will have on the day.  Spring Park, though, seemed to be able to cover any eventuality - lovely vistas of course, but plenty of shade for hotter days, lots of covered shelter in case of rain.

But once again we were lucky. It was in the upper 60s and breezy when we arrived, just about perfect. It did warm to the upper 70s as the morning wore on, but the shade and the breeze kept everyone comfortable. The threatened early afternoon thunderstorms never materialized.

Once again we had around a dozen folks who came up to paint with us. Several immediately set up prime spots inside the gazebo near the water's edge.

There were plenty of squirrels checking us out. They must get fed by park visitors as they were certainly bold and unafraid of humans.

Spring Park is big enough to offer plenty of options, but small enough that we could mostly see everyone and see what viewpoints they had chosen.

The views of the St. Johns River were of primary interest to most FCPS members however.

And most folks found spots to set up that allowed shade and comfort, but great views of the river.

Though others wandered along the stream up towards the iconic spring in Spring Park to find their inspiration.

There was certainly something for everyone, and easy walking if you were carrying all your plein air "stuff" while you checked it out.

This pair of sailboats riding at anchor seemed to capture the imagination of more than one FCPS'er.

As usual we broke for lunch about noon and had lunch and a show-and-tell under one of the cool and comfortable covered picnic pavilions. Below are works that were done, in various stages of completion of course, and some members even found time to do more than one painting.

More and more I'm seeing members working small on plein air days, which lends itself to multiple paintings if you choose. Quite a few of these were in the 5x7 or smaller size.

There was *one* issue that was completely unexpected. Since we were there for a full morning one of the key pluses was that the park featured not only ONE but TWO restrooms. And yet we got there only to find BOTH restrooms were locked, and remained so the entire morning. I live locally and go to Spring Park quite often, and I have never ever found the rest rooms locked whenever I went there. Talk about surprises ....

At any rate we have a member meeting coming up in May. Details will be posted on the blog later this month, but there are already details listed in the calendar which you can find by scrolling to the end of the blog. Check it out now if you like. It sounds like an interesting exercise in store for all.