Palleteers Paint at Emy's

Our good weather fortune continued once again as we painted at Emy's on Friday morning! The wind was blowing at 18-22 MPH and kept a few of us hopping. After my canvas decided it was a sail, I moved from the sea-facing porch to the garden patio to paint. Some of the more courageous braved the wind and practiced their dexterity, anchoring their painting with one hand, their brushes with their other hand, and their palette with an elbow! I think I saw some hats being sat on or held down by a foot or two! One painting escaped into the pool but luckily it was a watercolor, so its artists said, "no damage done"! The morning passed all too quickly while more than 27 artists painted busily. Our "show and tell" was really a show in itself! Afterwards, we all enjoyed a wonderful salad bar luncheon, prepared by our hostess, Emy. It was suggested that we include recipes for some of the treats we share at these lunches, so in the prior blog entry you'll find the recipe for Shirley's Lemon Bars.. yum! What a fun, memorable, time we all had! Thanks so much, Emy! You're great!
By the way, the spots on some of the photos of the paintings are dapples of shade and sunspots.
Ginger

Shirley's Lemon Bars from her dear friend, Mary Sisterman

Today we enjoyed a great lunch at Emy's. One of the desserts was lemon bars made by Palletteer Shirley Bobick. Since she graciously shared her recipe with me, I thought I'd put it on our blog for all of you to enjoy:
Shirley's Lemon Bars
Preheat oven 350 degrees
Crust:
2 Cups flour
1 Cup butter
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
Mix together and press into bottom of 9X13 baking pan. Bake 20 minutes
filling:
4 eggs
2 Cups sugar
6 Tablespoons lemon juice
Dash of salt
Mix together. Add 4 Tablespoons flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Pour filling on crust. Bake 25 minutes. Do not overbake! sprinkle with powdered sugar. No need to cool before sprinkling.

Palletteers at the Rickenbach's

Yesterday I woke up to pouring rain. I immediately checked the weather online and saw that a 20% chance of rain was predicted for the morning. Palletteers paint, rain or shine, so I packed my painting gear into my car and headed east, anticipating what I'd be painting. Leslie and Rick's home is charming and interesting. There was something to paint everywhere I looked. This was going to be a difficult choice: Paint the great view over the Buccaneer Hotel and outward towards Buck Island? the great architectural elements of their house? the crystal clear pool beside the charming gardens? one of the interesting flowers blooming especially for us to paint? For me, the triple Peach hibiscus called to the Georgia O'Keefe in me and, even though I usually don't paint flowers, I HAD to paint this one!
Gosh, a lot of Palletteers, old and several brand new, had shown up to paint! We were spread out all over the Rickenbach's home, outside, inside, on patios, porches, in bedrooms and driveways! We had a blast! It's always such fun to greet old friends, returning to St. Croix for their winter sojourn, but after the intitial hugs and exchanges, the quiet was palpable as each of us set up and focused on capturing our subject matter with our paints. There were some mumblings and rumblings, some chuckles, some "talking to our canvases" (you artists out there know what I mean!) but for the most part, there was a peaceful quiet. Were there really 27 women painting here?
One by one we completed our paintings and I, among the early finishers, walked around to see how everyone was doing and chat some more. Leslie was "in her element", socializing, making sure all of us were comfortable, and filling us in on some stories of their home.
"Show and Tell" time was really interesting! We spread our artwork out over 3 huge tables on the patio and "oohed" and "aahed" repeatedly as we saw the wonderful art that everyone had produced during the prior 3 hours. Thinking that our creativity might also extend to our cooking skills, Rick had an unusual announcement to make: he had a bread making machine he wanted to raffle off!!! so everyone who was interested put their name into the mix and Marilyn M. was the lucky winner! We made her promise to bring homemade bread for us to share to our next painting site! (Not really :^)
Lunch was yummy! The Palletteers are REALLY getting spoiled!
By the way, our Palletteer "weather luck" held out: the sun shone the entire time and the breezes were fabulous!
Thanks so much for a wonderful painting morning, Rick and Leslie! Lovya much!
Ginger
PS: Can I have your bread pudding recipe.. pleeese?