Sweet Sixteen

We are definitely under-apreciated at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden!  No painting!  Not even pastels or watercolor are allowed into the Japanese Gardens.  Fortunately they are not banned form the rest of the park.  We had a model posing in the shade of huge live oak trees today for a change of pace.  While we were waiting for the model to come I started a painting of the pagoda entrance to the Japanese gardens.  Lush in spite of the heat, the materials and style of the architecture makes you wonder if it could be anymore beautiful in Japan itself. 

Wendy brought our model.

Painting outside is hard enough, but painting a model or portrait in two hours in the changing light requires mental gymnastics!  It is not easy for the model either, the sun moves around and shines in her eyes, the mosquitoes bite (with west nile fever prevalent, that’s not acceptable) and it’s just not easy to sit for 2 hours.  Lunch at the Kimble was our reward.  Many of us follow Valerie Pirlot’s blog with herfriends in England.  The latest blog from August 8th showed them with hats and coats under overcast skies with puddles everywhere.  Alas they just don’t know what they are missing.