This was our inaugural painting session for 2010, and if this day was any indication of the sort of weather we’ll be having this year, then my only two words are “Woo” and “Hoo!” As is our custom, we started the year at the Brighton Dam Azalea Gardens. It was a beautiful morning, not too cool, breezy, sweet-smelling. The light was perfect, the azaleas were blooming, and the view across the reservoir was breath-taking. There were quite a lot of people strolling the paths, and there were four of us painters there – me, Kay, Elaine, and Mary. We all congregated at the same spot, where you can see the long view of the reservoir out beyond the azaleas – it looked almost Mediterranean. I did a small 8x10 on PastelBord (“Brighton View”) trying to capture that feel. We also spoke to two other artists who stopped to see what we were up to: I hope Roberta and Melinda can come paint with us one of these times. Stay tuned: we’ve got a whole 6 months of plein air to come!