Georgia Pacific

I had a great day today. I went to open studio at Studio UFO to paint with my buddies. Today was the Christmas party so we all brought food for a pot luck lunch. And each of us picked a painting to give as a gift. The rules are: it must be one you love and you must be happily willing to give it to one of your friends. We wrapped them in plain wrappers and when we arrived, Trish collected them and put numbers on them. Then we spent the morning as usual, getting news, everybody's initial critique on work in progress, and then painting until lunch time.

At lunch today, we ate the delicious food everybody brought and then drew numbers one at a time. We got the painting with that number on it. The next person who drew had a chance to take the previous painting or draw a new number. Everybody was sensitive to each other and did not take one away from somebody who really wanted it. I got one of Trish's paintings. Turns out I already have five or her pieces and the gal next to me had none and really wanted the painting I got. I made it clear to her that it was okay to take it and she did. Then I drew again and got her painting which made me very happy as I've been wanting one of hers for some time. So it all came out great.

After lunch we went back to work and I finished the painting I had been working on. It is the fist one on my painting website, Artist at Play. I was very happy how it came out and felt I had made a breakthrough with this painting. I was able to keep the spontaneity of the early work on it but add more paint. I was a happy puppy.

I thought I'd blip the painting but as I left the studio I saw an amazing light and beautiful sky above the old buildings on the Georgia Pacific site. The Port of Bellingham bought this from GP when it closed the plant eight years ago. The cost was the commitment to clean it up, a significant endeavor. It has taken until very recently to come up with a plan for the future of the area. The city and the port are working together to create a new waterfront area for the City of Bellingham. It will be a long time before it is complete. Here is the large version.

Helena is cooking dinner tonight and I am relaxing and working on my photos. Happy Holidays to you all.