Plein Air luck

What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday was raw and rainy, but today the morning weather was about as nice as January can get in northeast Florida, and we were treated to one of of the most fascinating plein air sites we've ever had in our 8-year history. Yup, this month marks our 8th anniversary and this was a great way to start off our 9th year.

We had our plein air at Lion's Gate - an amazing private home in St. Augustine's history Lincolnville neighborhood.

In addition to the home itself it had amazing grounds, some of the contents of which were shown in the previous blog post.

The house was also right alongside the beautiful marshes with many birds along the marshes and flying overhead.

We had a great turnout also, with several new members and guests. Almost everyone spent quite a bit of time just wandering around admiring the amazing grounds and trying to decide what they wanted to paint.

There were no wrong choices, that's for sure.

But eventually folks picked their spots and began to work. Interestingly, despite the amazing house and grounds and statuary, most of our members gravitated towards the lovely marsh views.

But as I said, you couldn't go wrong. I have a soft spot for marshes and that was what I chose myself.

I had to leave a little earlier than normal so folks were all still working when I went around to see what everyone was doing, and to take some photos. My usual caveat is that the works are in various stages of completion, but today most were a little more preliminary than usual. But as you can see, the marsh was the favorite of all those who came. Here are the paintings from the morning that everyone was working on.

If I missed anyone I apologize! But it was a fabulous morning indeed. Later in the afternoon a cloud cover rolled in, and even some rain and sprinkles, so we were lucky that the morning was just right for us. I hope to see you all in February.