Fountain of Youth on the raw side

 What a difference a day or two makes. The forecast for Saturday was sunny and 70 when I posted the previous blog entry, but the forecast deteriorated more and more as the week wore on, so that by Saturday morning the  forecast was for cloudy, windy, and mid-50s! I'm sure the weather contributed to our low turnout of FCPS participants.

Nonetheless there were some of us who turned up, and enjoyed getting to see the grounds, and all the peacocks strutting around. Some of us were here with the FCPS in 2012, but there has been a lot of new construction since then.

 In the end there were a total of six of us who showed up to paint on the grounds.

We were asked to set up as much as possible along the perimeters of the park, along the edges of the marshes, so as not to disturb the other folks visiting the park.  Though, with the weather, the crowds were pretty small anyway.

Still, we always enjoy seeing one another. The chill did seep in though as we sat, and in the end we broke about 11:15 and all joined one another for lunch at the small restaurant on the grounds. It felt good to get something warm to eat.

But it was also fun to stroll around the grounds and get photos, though the lighting was not the best.

There was a 16th Century reenactment going on for the weekend also, and most of the folks had certain specialties which they were very happy to talk about. A couple of us stayed behind after lunch and went through the reenactors' village. Because the crowds were so light we got a lot of personal attention and information. We especially enjoyed talking to artist Mark Menendez about 16th century painting techniques. Mark is not only an artist and art teacher, but also a descendant of Pedro de Menendez who founded St. Augustine right on this very spot in 1565 - a connection to history. And another connection: Mark hired a Spanish genealogist to trace his connection to Pablo de Menendez, and the genealogist he hired is also a pastelist, and founding member and President of the Association of Spanish Pastel Painters. :-)

NOTE: If you missed Saturday we are, right now, expecting to do another plein air day in March. Stay tuned for details.