Overwhelmed by art!

Well we got Christmas and New Years over and done, thanks everyone for their cards and messages!!

In the break between Xmas and New Year we heard from our friends Fred and Judy who are planning on being in Florida January/February. After a few exchanges of details they made reservations at this park so we'll have a couple of weeks to catch up on all their news. 

Al and Jackie were in Melbourne FL for Christmas so we spent a day down there having lunch and talking fulltiming. They are hoping to try it too and are in the planning stage, we swapped some good/bad stories with them to keep them fired up! They are planning on being back in FL in March so we'll be meeting up with them again.

Talking of planning – we've made a decision on the where when and how of the trip we want to make to Europe in 2017. We have pretty much decided that it makes sense to store the rig and car here in FL and fly out of Orlando. That's based on our ability to store at a couple of places where we have a membership and the price of flights to UK. We're aiming for May 17 to September 5^th right now.

Then we have made a BIG plan for next winter but that's a secret for now. Just wait and see it'll be FUN!

Work on rig maintenance has come to a halt for a while. I needed a ladder to change out the camera on the rear view system but the one I have is too small. I ordered a special telescoping ladder for in-store pickup from Home Depot.  I got the ladder but the weather has been too cold to get the job finished.

On the maintenance list so far:

Change the engine oil and filter.

Flush the hot water heater and replace the anode.

Drain the fresh water tank.

Install a new water filter element.

Rework the bathroom floor and rebuild the “Commode”.

Replace an awning pull strap.

Fix a couple of lights that I screwed up a year or so ago!

Change the shower head and hose.

I think I can handle all of those.

The Fiesta is in for it's seemingly annual transmission repair. 

It gets old. 

I keep hoping that this time will be a permanent fix from Ford but within about 5K miles or so it usually starts rattling and lurching again. Ford has extended the transmission warranty out to 100K miles, at this rate we might get 5 more repairs before the warranty expires!

I've been painting steadily and I have a form for entering the park's Fine Art Show in February. I'll have to sort out my favorite painting and get frames on them.

My "Informal Art Group" at the park has had it's first meeting and 9 people showed up! We'll be having weekly meetings each Tuesday at 2 pm from now on.

An Art group in Leesburg have restarted their weekly “Studio Sessions” at the Leesburg Center for the Arts after the Christmas break so I joined in that this week. I'm pretty excited at the prospect of being with group of other artists. Working alongside somebody else just adds flavor to the creation process and you learn so much.

Open studio

The first session was a review of the basics of perspective, a basic skill in drawing that if done wrong is immediately obvious. The class “Leader” is a retired High School art teacher and really made a solid easily understood presentation.

Next on the agenda was painting a piano. Not a painting OF a piano, actually painting ON a piano! There is a movement around the country that wants to put donated pianos in public spaces. This piano was donated locally and will sit outside a local wine store. Anyone passing by is welcome to play, in fact it will say “Please Play I'm Yours” right on there. 

The victim

The Leesburg Art Association (LAA) has been volunteered to decorate this one with something involving wine, drinking glasses, bottles etc. Unfortunately it was delivered just before the Christmas break and now they want it FRIDAY!

Being a go getter in my previous life I jumped in with both feet and we sketched out some basic shapes to get some ideas going.

A simple scroll to break up the space 

About 6 artists of all skill levels had added to it. It's been fun dropping by each day and seeing how much it's progressed. I must admit to have covered a LOT of it with my contributions, I hope nobody feels left out. The lady who did the “Zen Tangle” work on the cover for the keys is hugely talented but keeps saying she isn't! I think all artists have an anxiety thing going.

Here's some pictures of the work as it progressed.