Another Saturday

What a great day! 61 degrees. That's very cool for August in the California Central Valley where August temps are usually over 100. As usual, we drove into Chico for our morning walk. This time we brought our sweatshirts; I had to search for one. And once we had made the 2 mile walk into the park it was time to take the sweatshirts off. On the way back we went past our car and continued down the road to the Saturday morning Farmer's Market. It's really a great market and since we arrive fairly early, 8:45, we have a good selection to choose from and the crowds haven't arrived. Yes, there were a lot of people there but nothing like the crowds we see later in the day when the university students finally wake up and venture out.

We started off buying some locally processed, non-pasteurized garlic herb cheese. A little pricey at $14 a pound so we bought a small portion. Then we had to buy some green beans and red onions from one of the Hmong farmers. The Hmong really do a great presentation with their produce. It's all beautiful! Turning the corner at the end of the first aisle I had to stop for a cup of freshly ground Columbian Dark Roast coffee. It's a habit of course and I enjoy talking to the couple that have the space. As we were on our way up the last aisle I spotted a perfect small eggplant. Is there any color that compares to the rich purple of the eggplant? I bought it. And right across from that vendor was a guy selling eggs, including duck eggs for only $4.50 a dozen. I've seen duck eggs for as high as $12 so I'm going to grab some of them next week. If you've never tasted duck eggs, you're missing a treat.

On to another subject. We, the nine artists that paint every Tuesday morning at the Art Center, hung our offerings on the walls of the Chico Sports Club yesterday. All very stressful for those of us that had never shown any of our work as there were quite a few critics sitting around the café where the art was being shown. On the plus side, one of our groups paintings sold immediately. We had just hung it in place and someone wanted her watercolor of pumpkins for $125. She is a very good painter but always in watercolors where she paints 'realism'. Now, my paintings are all abstract and one canvas managed to offend a couple that were sitting nearby. I didn't hear the comments but one of our group heard the man say, "It must have been painted by some old hippy." They were taken aback a little when my friend told them that I was a retired superintendent from a nationwide construction company. Then they said something about how our President might like it. Not bad! To get a response like that is as rewarding as selling the painting. I'm of the school that believes a painting has to make a statement and I guess it did. Also, I'm not a hippy. Hippies are much younger than I am. I'm from the 'Beat' generation and proud of it!

The paintings will be up for 52 more days so anything can happen. It's a big sports club and they have a lot of traffic in and out of the café area. In the meantime, I'm moving on with my painting and hoping to create a collection I can show at Café Flo, a local coffee shop that shows local artists.

    I'll take pictures of the show when we have the reception…