Lotta art going on

What a great day! I spent the morning with some forty women of the Tri Art Club of Dayton. I've been a member for many years, but haven't been active for awhile because of workshop travel, book-writing, and, of course, baby-sitting my Little Artist. It's a lively group of a wide age-range. Nearly all are active and involved in painting and showing their work. I talked with an eighty-nine-year-old artist who paints and exhibits with her plein-air group and participates in outreach classes with Sinclair community college.

After lunch I went to my favorite retailer's, McCallister's to pick up brushes and see what's new. George Bussinger, the owner, was excited about some new products he found at a recent trade show--pocket-sized sketchbooks with watercolor paper and sumi-ink pencils and brushes. He showed me a retrofitted space at the back of his store that will accommodate on-site workshops and occasional warehouse sales. Speaking of which, the sale is coming up in a couple of weeks--everything in the store will be 25% off! I think this is the best store in the tri-state area, so if you live anywhere near Dayton, it's worth the trip. Check the web site for more information.

Later I went to see the juried show of the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors. I had heard both raves and rants about it, but that's usually the way with juried shows. It looked like a pretty good show to me, although I had seen a lot of good paintings in the reject room that might have been my choices. One of the artists in my new book, Lesley Walton, won best-of-show for a very fine pencil drawing.

No more art over the weekend. Must plant annuals. Must trim shrubbery. Must do whatever I can outside, because it's going to be beautiful. I'll save a little time on Sunday to visit Art in the Park at Riverbend Art Center, where I taught watercolor for twenty years before I started teaching national workshops.