Autumn
September is a favored month for Rogue Valley residents. The last heat wave is over and crisp, clear mornings become routine, walks become a delight aqgain, winter birds start arriving, painting outdoors is at its best, and local events fill our calendars. Sometimes there are so many occuring simultaneously that I want to attend, it makes a lovely dilemma! This year we had Open Studios weekend, an International Mosaic Convention, the first concert by RV Symphony, Ashland New Plays, and HD opera (opening with a stunning ‘Tristram and Isolde”) to name a few. The one I most want to write about, tho, is the rainy weekend at Upper Klamath Lake with my watercolor group.
We have rented a house there several times that has a very large living area on one floor which is all one space for day use – kitchen, dining area and living room (with several couches, lounge chairs, reading lamps and a big stone fireplace). It’s comfortable and funky and was a great place to spend a rainy weekend in mid-October. Two large bedrooms upstairs can accommodate 6 sleepers. We fill the downstairs with painting tables, lamps and materials and thread our way between lots of obstacles. The house faces the lake and has continuous windows that make you feel outside when inside. This was particularly great when a full moon poked thru the clouds and made a silver path on the water. And when rain-fog-wind caused the lake to disappear. The group has 3 kayakers but they never got out on the water. We arrived early Friday afternoon and unpacked, had a quick walk and started painting. Once it began the rain was pretty steady thereafter. Our instructor, Jane Hardgrove, had made a ‘curriculum’ of two projects and the first was to take a landscape and paint it with 4 different kinds of dominant edges – lost, soft, hard and rough. Meaning we were not restricted to nothing-but as long as one was dominant. They were small, all a one quarter sheet. The upper right one is soft-edged and moving counter-clockwise thru the other 3 types they are dominantly soft, hard and rough-edged. Except for mine (see note below). One of our members wanted to be anonymous so is listed as S.
Here they are:
For reasons I can’t recall I started with a pencil sketch with rough edges in the upper left and then went on to the others. It is clear that my ‘lost’ is the ‘lostest’ in the group, and oddly enough the others really liked it. Mine is also close to monochromatic and the others are colorful. My co-painters are wonderfully indulgent, and have come to expect a different take from me on our cooperative projects. I do love our joint session every week and Jane’s inventive ways of stretching our talents.
Stellar musical events were HD operas ‘Tristan and Isolde’ and ‘Don Giovanni’. I have never seen Tristan and found it totally mesmerizing. I’m not really a Wagner enthusiast but Eric was, and I certainly missed have him beside me. This was a great performance and the 5 hours, astonishingly, flew by. Don Giovanni was also very good, especially Simon Keenlyside as the Don. He was seriously villainous, more ruthless and cruel than I have ever seen portayed, and at intermission he gave a serious talk about his perception of the Don’s character as it relates to our current political scene. (That is the only reference I am going to make about our horrific election campaign.)
And then came the opening concert of the Rogue Valley Symphony. Martin Majkut continues to advance the orchestra with innovative programming and impeccable performance. The orchestra now has soloists in every section and the Shostakovich 9th Symphony really showcased their talents. And for me, watching it was magical. I had listened to it the day before (we collected all his symphonies) but never seen a live performance.It added another dimension, seeing the themes jump from Piccolo to trombone to clarinet to trumpet. I just loved it. We are so lucky to have such a vibrant young conductor.
Artistically there was the Contemporary Mosaic Assn. weekend with a juried exhibit of works from everywhere, one of the most exciting events on our fall agenda. Mosaic art has taken a great leap into the present and is inspiring works that really exploit the medium in very creative new ways. I have become an enthusiast myself and just finished a piece I am pretty happy with, an adult Eared Grebe in breeding plumage accompanied by two chicks. It’s on my back fence and can be seen as soon as you walk into the house. 
There is lots more going on but I’m ready do something else, so adios til the next post.