Paintout at the Presidio
040409-13SFS Originally uploaded by jwallphoto Yesterday I participated in the California Watercolor Association 's Paintout at the Presidio. Although I've sketched and painted from life as a regular practice, I'd never done a competitive art event and wanted to see what it was like. We showed up at 9am to have our papers registered (date stamped) then set out to find a spot to paint. We had 4 hours to fill the paper. Four hours is plenty of time and on one of my usual jaunts I would have completed two or three pieces in that amount of time. But I discovered that I am not impervious to the pressure of competition. I spent the first hour starting and restarting, in anxious judgment and dithering over how to proceed. Didn't really get into the zone until well into the second hour, but it didn't last long. I overworked the background and only had 20 minutes to complete the foreground. Then we returned to the Officer's Club, to display our work for two hours,...