3rd Annual Plein Air (Paint Camp!) Retreat

I just returned from the 3rd annual plein air retreat (Paint Camp!) I organized for my local group. We had the best time! Weather was great! We got in 2 full days of painting in 70-80 degree sunshine. The third day, it was mostly rainy, but worked well for a painting touch up day and time to chill out. The fourth day, we held a little wet paint sale for the public, but only 8 of us exhibited, 3 of which sold 4 paintings!

I didn't take as many photos of the events like I usually do. One reason was so I could enjoy myself more! The other was there is no wifi at the lodge, and my cellphone data is only 1GB. I also grabbed a wall charger from home, and it turned out to be an extra power cord to my Roku box! Wouldn't work for the phone - DUH! I have a car charger, but rarely used the car. Most of the photos below are from me or the group, but we also had a local newspaper photographer following us around a couple days! Several of the artist shots are his. He met some of us last year, and was looking forward for our 2016 visit.

We had 16 artists and 2 spouses. Twelve of us filled up the lodge, three others rented in other cottages/rooms, two stayed on their sailboat, and one was local.

We had lots of non-painting activities. A birthday celebration, a marathon jig-saw puzzle construction, an art supply swap, Artist Choice awards, sunset watching, beach glass collecting, sail boat riding (which literally went aground....), and even went to a intimate acoustic concert by a local The Voice contestant! We had planned to play Pictionary and Skip-Bo, but everyone was so wore out from playing outside all day, most went to bed early.

I had great plans to paint several oil paintings while working on my architectural compositions, but failed. Once I went back to my pastels, things went better, but I only went home with 3 small pastels.

We piled our daily work on these long tables, but quickly ran out of room and had to use additional tables.

Emily Keener, Wakeman Ohio - The Voice Contestant concert. This was held in the old opera house/town hall which was also used for her debut video which was revealed that evening.

 Lotsa conversations!

 Beach glass!

Michael got an award medal for his hard work on this tough puzzle. He finished it the morning we were leaving for home!

 Marianne won the Artist Choice award and a prize for her beautiful blue chair painting!

 I won the first Honorable Mention ribbon for my shaded path pastel:

Donna won the "Prolific" painter Honorable Mention award for the most paintings created at the retreat:

 Marianne also won an Honorable mention for her boats painting.

 We all gathered on the beach one evening and had a great sunset!

Most of the time, we ate at the lodge from the food we brought, but the last evening, we headed to Berardi's in Huron and had great service and great food!

Now on to planning the 4th annual painting camp!!