Notes From My Residency Journal
Mary Jane and I just got back from our annual painting trip to Epcot. I'll let her write her own story here on the blog.
This is my 9th year as project manager of this event. We are invited with 14 other plein air landscape painters to paint the gardens of the World Showcase at Epcot during the International Flower and Garden Festival. We arrive on Thursday and depart on Sunday night.
As you can imagine, I meet thousands of people there each year. I am privileged to interact with visitors and to educate many children about art. I often let them put marks of paint on my paintings. I always use acrylics, so it is easy to repair them after the child moves on. We paint on Friday-Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM. We are treated to a sumptuous banquet each year and given wonderful trophies as keepsakes. We are housed in Disney's finest resort hotels each year so it is difficult to leave, knowing it will be a year before we return. It is a reunion for us, with artists we know and love. They come from all parts of the South and it is often the only time we see them. I am already missing the luxury hotel ;-), looking forward to 2013's adventure.