22 days til my party at Final Friday

As the big college football fan I am, I've been watching Scarlet and Gray days on the Big 10 network. When I noticed their "countdowns" to the Virginia Tech game and the Michigan game, I thought I'd start my own countdown to Pendleton's Final Friday this month, which will be my big "one tube of paint" birthday celebration as well as the art center's annual anniversary bash.

To be honest, I wasn't that excited about entering a new decade until I got home and found a package on my doorstep yesterday. What a nice surprise: it was a birthday card and a tube of yellow green oil paint from the friend and fellow artist who owns my palette knife painting shown here.

I painted this en plein air at Glenwood Gardens on a Saturday morning a few summers ago, accompanied by artist Jennifer King. We used to pick spots to paint on Saturdays and just let one another know in case we could meet up there. I miss doing that and will have to try it again. My next plein air day will be Sat Oct 10 on Mt Adams at the Art Walk but there could be Saturdays after that with good weather for painting. Join me?

Anyway, I can't wait to use this new oil paint Cathy gave me to do another palette knife painting. It's been years since I've done that! And she was so kind and thoughtful to mail me a tube of paint and birthday greetings, even though she can't make it to the party on September 25. Her fabric and quilt work is the very finest and I'm filled with gratitude for her friendship, inspiration, and the gift of paint.

This countdown might keep me posting daily, which I always mean to do but then never seem to get around to; stay tuned and cheers!