Day 2 - April 3, 2007

It is 9:45pm and I'm walking from my studio to the residence when I turn back to look towards the barn. There is soft light filtering through the white drapes of a writers' studio and I can see the charcoal silhouette of the old building. The full moon is glowing peach and is illuminating the sky with a pale cerulean-gray hue. There are dark cumulous clouds floating past the scene. I hear frogs and the soft munching and snorting of the resident cows, invisible in the dark field. I think that I am in a dream, a very good dream. I am thinking of Pam and wishing that I could send this dream or the feeling of this dream to her.

I started my workday by applying a second coat of gesso to my canvas with a 4" brush and vigorous strokes. While letting it dry I did a study on watercolour paper and was so focused that it was complete in little time! The air is humid here and it took quite awhile to dry. My large canvas is on it's way to becoming? A painting? It is so unlike my usual carefully planned scenes. At this moment the sky is undercoated in great swirls of teals and greens reminiscent of the wind on the day that I experienced this scene. I am attempting to recreate the eerie green that lit the distant landforms and am hoping to make the water look stern.

After a wonderful dinner this evening, Mary Page Evans did a slide presentation of her plein air paintings. Most of them are 5' across or more. She stretches the canvas on a board, which she props against a tree, or lays in the field grass and upon which she creates beautiful loose landscapes in oils. She has been to the VCCA 15 times.

I crave to be in the studio all of the time, it is like a constant adrenaline rush but common sense tells me that I should get some sleep.