My Birthday Break today
So, I had a good reason to stay in bed a little bit longer this morning. It was a gray day, with a couple drops of rain. Because of the time difference, my family already called and messaged me for my birthday last night. My sweet husband left a small birthday note with a tiny chocolate cake and a candle was ready for me when I got up. Had lunch with three other girl friends, I ordered a vegetarian Vietnamese noodle for a simple celebration. Then went to one of the ladies house for an hour chat. Really didn't do much today, and felt I really needed the one day break. Only checked my birthday messages from all over the world over social medias at night, very grateful feeling from my heart. Though I won't able to respond each of them...
Yesterday was another busy Tuesday from morning till night. My first time paining at Lake Chabot Regional Park in San Leandro. I was lucky that it was quite a smooth drive in the morning to the location. I joined a Chinese Plein Air group, most of them professionally trained artists back to China. Didn't know it was such a busy park, or perhaps there were some other events going on. I found several boats parked on the ground nearby Lake Chabot Marina & Cafe, and tried to use the shadow of the deck to block the sunlight. But there were people enjoying coffee and chatting on the deck. I didn't move, thought they were leaving soon anyway. Most of people left, but there were two remaining Chinese women sitting and chatting endlessly. They even traded opinions on how to treat other people, their finical status, and how much money they spent etc.. I tried my best not listen to their conversation, and focused on my work. Might be because it was my mother language, and they didn't talk quietly, I still heard so clearly. Finally, they left around noon for lunch, and my work was done too.
I don't usually bring food with me to Plein Air. There were so much food brought by the artists, some even grown from their own backyards. Enjoyed chatting with a couple of them. Surprised to find out that one of artists in this group was the son-in-law of my father's art teacher long long time ago. Then I met his wife, she treated me super-kindly, we had a photo together. She introduced me to an artist couple that had just came to visit their daughter living nearby from Japan. Another surprise was that this couple knew my first art teacher from my childhood that I had long since lost contact with. I guess that it is not only a small world, but even a smaller art world.
There was a little bit traffic on the way home, picked up my drawing stuff, went to the short pose drawing for another three hours. What a tiring day!
