Plein Air @ Cloverdale Sonoma County CA
A long term friend of my husband's invited us over to stay during this memorial weekend in Sonoma county. They bought a 20 acre property in Cloverdale 10 years ago, and moved in a couple years back. They love the country lifestyle and fit into it so well. We live in a suburban area. It is hard to imagine the hard work and many projects that have to be done out there. After our personal tour, we were super impressed by their great clean up job and endless efforts. Michele is a fabulous cook, and she is fond of Julia Child so we were in for a treat. We enjoyed her cooking, barbecued food, and her husband Raul's cocktail refreshments. We ate, hiked, wine tasted, watched TV shows, watched birds visiting all of their feeders, played games, chatted and laughed as we caught up on years of friendship. During our visit, I had a little time to squeeze in two very fast works. One was of the corner of their house, I saw the beautiful light coming through the fence in the morning, and a pomegranate tree I grew from a seed long time ago was happily growing and blooming in front of their house.
Another one I painted during wine tasting. I don't drink alcohol often, had a headache from the night before after drinking, so I didn't have any appetite for wine tasting, so another very quick Plein Air work got done.
Both paintings I did in about a third of time I usually do. Each of them helps me to remember their warm and generous hosting. We had a great fun together for two days, especially after such an unforgettable pandemic lock down, these moments we had were very precious …
(May 29 2021)