Quick Draw, February 4, 2010

Waxahachie, Texas--a Quick Draw event

The 2009 “Paint Historic Waxahachie” event (a plein air 8-day experience) kicked off on a Saturday morning at the courthouse square.  Over fifty painters had registered for the Quick Draw phenomenon–a 90-minute time limit to complete a painting on the courthouse lawn of any scene visible from that location.  I had arrived the afternoon before and spent 2-3 hours doing my first painting in plein air, choosing the opposite side of the courthouse from this scene posted.

The morning was beautiful, sunny and cool.  Throngs were all over the downtown area.  I arrived about an hour early so I could park, unload, and go look for a spot under the trees.  Every angle of vision was so attractive that I must have walked the perimeter of the square four or five times.  When my wife called on the cell phone, I laughingly told her I must look like a dog nosing around for a place to pee, I had poked around the place for so long.

Finally I chose this location.  When the contest began, I immediately wondered how I was going to get a wet watercolor composition to “behave” so that I could call it “finished” in 90 minutes.  But I stuck to it.  The funny thing was–onlookers kept coming around and engaging all of us in conversation, and it was great conversation.  But I probably worked less than an hour on it for all the talking I did.  But it was fun, and we all laughed over the time constraints and the “social networking.”

When the deadline arrived, I looked at this piece, concluded that it was crap, and submitted a starting bid of $20 (the rules to the contest stated that all Fast Draw entries would be auctioned at the courthouse steps).  What a crowd!  Photographers crowded around, taking photos of the scores of paintings lining the sidewalks and steps, drying in the sun.  I went ahead and photographed my own painting as it lay in the grass, before putting it out for bid.   Surprisingly, this watercolor fetched $75 in the bidding.

I’m looking forward to the event coming up again in June.  Hopefully I won’t be as nervous, having done it once already.  And maybe I’ll paint instead of talk!

Tags: Americana, courthouse square, drybrush, Edward Hopper, field painting, French Impressionism, nostalgia, Our Town, plein air, Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, Sherwood Anderson, small town, Thornton Wilder, watercolor, Waxahachie Texas, Winesburg Ohio, winsor & newton, Wyeth