Thursday November 16th
High of 10, low of 6, mostly rain, varying from mist to downpours.
Today is Progress Studio! So I'm spending most of the day doing what I can to get as much work done as possible. Quick pain aux chocolat and egg for breakfast and then I'm back down the hill and hopping in! My main goal for today was get the first coat of paint on the portraits on my main gallery wall (4 in total, two large).
Grabbed a quick late lunch and cracked open a beer. Finished the final first layer on the gallery wall before I even finished my beer and decided to at least get a little bit of paint on one of the big canvas pieces with a bit over an hour left before we were to meet in the Salon.... Actually ended up getting the whole base done on one of the two big ones (even though I kept pointlessly refusing to put out more paint on my palette, handicapping myself)!
Headed up the hill to the salon for the start of the progress studio~! We started with the writers sharing how they've been using their residencies (lots of shared themes, lots of trees), then we headed down the hill as a group to the stables to see everyone's work! I was too deep in it to remember to take photos of anyones' studios 😅🙄 but left feedback for everyone! It was great to see the studios of those people who I haven't yet seen, including Josh and Susan in the Stables! Headed back up the hill again and made our way through the remaining studios before retiring to the salon to discuss each others' art and give feedback (with a plethora of wine and cheese provided by our hosts). It turned into a great evening of really getting into everyone's work and having good art discourse.
The talk spilled into dinner as well, and dinner was creamy tomato soup, risotto with peas, sautéed vegetables, chicken breast in a creme forêt sauce and crêpes made with a local flour(?) served with bechamel, cheese and mushrooms. Dessert was a creme caramel. We were all absolutely stuffed, in part from the pre-dinner cheese.
The dining room is always so loud after dinner, so I escaped to the Salon and found Stephanie who I talked to at length and traded a bunch of book recommendations with. This just drove me to run home and read. Had a cozy evening in and was struggling to keep my eyes open by 10:30. Should have started my reading in the living room!!!
