Our annual juried show

 Again. with the Covid pandemic, one of the other things that ended up not happening as expected. was our annual juried member show. It's original date was right in the middle of the lockdown, the Cultural Center was closed. We hoped to postpone until the fall, but with the fall upon us it's still not an option.

So as many groups have done this year, we've converted our juried show to an online show. Many thanks to Carron Wedlund who worked hard on the show, and created the online version for us. We have so many talented artists in our group so we certainly want to share our works with everyone. I hope you will all enjoy our show:

Arboretum

We're getting lucky with our weather now as we head into the fall, and Saturday was a lovely day indeed, a bit overcast, but beautiful temps from the mid 60s up into the low 70s.  But life is still strange for many of us in these days, and only two dedicated FCPS members showed up for our first plein air event for the fall season.

Special thanks to Patrick Mahoney who is our plein air coordinator. I have to thank him for the photos of the event since I'm one of those who couldn't attend.

And Betsey Hogan, one of our plein air stalwarts, also came to the event. 

Beautiful works from both Betsey and Pat. I hope you both had a good day even though you were missing many of the rest of us who often attend. 

Plein Air - Arboretum

 

We are continuing with our strange new season with Covid - more open air and more plein air for the time being with our first plein air this coming Saturday.

From Pat Mahoney, our plein air coordinator:

October 3rd, Saturday

The Arboretum and Gardens

1445 Millcoe Rd. Jax.

jacksonvillearboretum.org

Directions:   

NORTH on 295. Exit onto Monument Rd. Take very FIRST LEFT onto Millcoe Rd. Short distance, entrance on the RIGHT

 Saturday hours 8:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.

Many dirt trails and a paved walkway around the lake. We can brown bag lunch as in the past. They have tables, left of entrance to have lunch around 11:00. Restroom to left of parking lot. Park Map at entrance. One covered structure in back of Lake Ray for shelter.

from their website

For your safety, please follow the guidelines listed:

Masks or face coverings are strongly recommended for everyone over the age of two. Visitors are expected to follow health guidelines on social distancing, maintaining at least 6 feet apart at all times. Follow the signs on the trails. They are designated for one-way traffic. Please do not gather in groups of more than 10. $3 non-member visitor donation is requested to help pay for maintenance and operations.

I plan on making the paintout. Hope to see you there.

New Season

 

Well it's hard to believe that it's almost September now in this crazy year. It's been a couple months since we last got together via Zoom back in June.

But Zoom is still a fun way to connect, and we got to see some great suggestions from Janelle and Tish,  and tried to do so with Patrick, but his internet connection didn't cooperate!

And most exciting was participation by our group founder, Lyn Asselta, all the way from her new home up in Maine, and she even did a demo for us! Technology can definitely be a blessing in these interesting times. 

She finished up her demo piece after the meeting and you can see that, as usual, it's a stunning Lyn piece. 

Now we are headed into the new season. Our first meeting will be a week later than usual since our normal meeting time falls on Labor Day weekend. I hope everyone is remaining well and healthy.

Date:    Saturday, September 12

Time:   10 AM to noon

Place:  The Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach

Our original plan was to meet outdoors in the courtyard, but now they tell us we can use our normal meeting room, appropriately distanced and wearing masks. No set meeting topic but we will talk about our society and ways we can stay active in this coming season. We may be including more chances for plein air since being out in the open air is good for us all. 

There are only a limited number of people who will be allowed into the building at any one time, so if you want to attend this meeting you must RSVP so we can keep a tally. 

Washington Oaks, and **UPCOMING **

Although it was a chilly day we still had a few hardy souls who made it to lovely Washington Oaks for our plein air day, along with some members of the First Coast Plein Air Painters. It certainly looks like some beautiful work was done.

But sadly, it looks like that may be a last get-together for a while! It took place just shortly before the big explosion of the Coronavirus, Covid-19. Many of us are now at home, sheltering in place. Face-to-face get-togethers are not recommended at this time.

Here's what we know so far for the FCPS.

- All normal scheduled events for the season have been cancelled. No group meetings in April or June, no plein air event in May.

- Our upcoming juried show is now on hold. We are trying to work out a new date but since the Cultural Center is closed for the time being we can't get with them to schedule. We are *hoping* that we can schedule the show for this coming November, but nothing is set yet so stay tuned.

- Our Aline Ordman workshop is also postponed. Again we currently have dates set for November 7-8 (with demo on November 6) to coincide with (we hope) our juried show. No dates about the show at this point. If you are signed up for the workshop you should be getting information about requesting a refund if you can't or don't want to sign up for the new dates. Otherwise we hope you'll still be able to attend once we get the new dates worked out.

Although we can't meet face to face we've been trying to think of ways we can interact virtually. If you are interested in this you could start out by installing Zoom  on your PC or phone as this may be a platform we will be using.

Washington Oaks paint-out

The weather looks cool but sunny for our Saturday paint-out at beautiful Washington Oaks State Park in Flagler County. 

Be sure to be warm, but there is plenty to see and enjoy at Washington Oaks.

From the Intracoastal Waterway to the Atlantic Ocean, with amazing gardens in-between. We usually paint from about 9 AM until 11:30 - 12:00 and then break for lunch. If you like please bring a picnic lunch as we share a meal and allow those who wish to do a "show and tell" of their artwork of the morning.

Walter Jones Historic Park

As long time members know, and new members should learn, we have monthly get-togethers from September to June, alternating between group meetings and plein air paint-outs.

But some members have felt it was a shame having to wait two months between paint-outs, so we decided to inaugurate a new policy of having a paint-out on the second Saturday on the months that we have our general meeting on the first Saturday.

This month was our first month to give it a try and we held our paint-out at the Walter Jones Historic Park in Mandarin.

The weather was lovely on Saturday, cool and crisp and sunny. About a half dozen of our members showed up to paint, or even just to visit, so I'd say it was a success.

March will be our "regular" plein air on the first Saturday, at lovely Washington Oaks State Park, so stay tuned for more details. And in April we'll have our second Saturday plein air as well.