Sept 5 - Roseburg, OR

This morning we (my hosts and I) had some time to kill before the plein air events started in the afternoon, so we drove up to Crater Lake to get in a little sight-seeing.  It was amazing--so blue!  And (oddly) I forgot to take the camera, so just pretend there's a bunch of lodge pole pines standing in front of an electric blue blue-screen (or one of the guys from the Blue Man Group) and that would be about the color intensity of the lake.  Just . . . wow.

We got back to town just in time to change clothes and clean up, then run back out for the event meet/greet and associated dinner.  I met the guest juror (Thomas Kitts) and talked to him for a bit, and met a lot of other really great people--most are here as competitors, though I'm trying not to think of the event that way.  He gave a short speech about the plein air process and (thankfully!) also gave us a heads up on what judging criteria he'll be looking for with our work.  I am the ONLY pencil/pen/ink artist here, so that made me feel better since I had been thinking there was NO chance I'd even be able to compete.

I don't even have a plan for any of my work, I'm just going to show up and let it roll.  I'm definitely feeling the high-contrast graphic vibe, though, so we'll see!

I'm not the only fish out of water, though, since there's a woman here who does encaustic paintings, and I hear she did really well last year.  I'm astounded that she's able to do her work in the field at all but apparently she has a whole rig set up in the back of a van, which has got to be a sight to see so you know who I'll be looking for once I'm done with my stuff!

Tomorrow I should have some photos to post--of my work, at least!

Here's how tomorrow will play out:

• 730am: Check in, get my papers time-stamped and start sketching/drawing/whatever.  I'll start at a nearby farm, though I have the option to also travel down to a local vineyard.
• 2pm: Whatever I've done, I get it time-stamped again and slap one-, two-, or three of my best pictures into frames and schlep them down to the arts center within one hour of the final time-stamp.  If I leave the farm location and go to the vineyard, I have to frame and deliver what I did to the art center before going back out to the vineyard.
• 3pm: If it's not at the art center by this time it won't be part of the judging.
• 4pm: Pencils ready for the quick-draw contest in downtown Roseburg!  We have about two city blocks roped off for the event, and we have two hours to do whatever we're going to do.  We can each only enter 1 picture from the quick-draw event for judging.
• 6pm: Pencils down!  Like the painting session earlier, I have to get the work checked out and framed before it's due back at the art center.  I have the chance to win a people's choice award with this one!
• 7pm: Deadline to have the quick-draw art delivered to the art center and then I'm sure I'll fall over asleep before I get back to the car.

There will be a bunch of artist demos on Friday morning while things are being judged (I'm hoping to catch a pastel demo), and then later that day they'll announce winners and hand out awards.  I win "furthest traveled" and I heard I'll get an award for that, which will be nice.  Maybe it'll be a gas card. . . heh!