The Wednesday Group

A perfect first week of October…. it started with the beautiful drive to Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei’s studio along the Hudson River.  The drive takes me north into Massachusetts and then west through the Berkshires.  And although it was barely October the color was already reaching peak along parts of this drive! This month the Wednesday Group was quite large, 10 of us in all.  That can be a challenging number to fit into Archie and Susan’s studio, large as it is!  They have a generous enclosed porch that overlooks the Hudson, probably 40′ long with a wall of windows along that whole length.   The views are amazing and distracting! Large ships bearing gravel power by throughout the day and night, and there is pleasure boat traffic as well.

A couple of us are very lucky to stay right nearby at the house of a friend. Doing this means we get to have home cooked meals at night  and can bring homemade lunches to class.  We eat like royalty and enjoy evenings sitting out on the terrace watching life on the river amongst the herb garden and fruit trees.  This week the weather was warm and one evening, while having wine and cheese on the terrace we were entertained (and I was amazed!) by the loon-like call of a screech owl…..over and over…  it was idyllic!

 In spite of our numbers in class, we all seem to have gotten some good work done this month.  It’s great to be together, and a larger group ensures that there is plenty of inspiration and good vibes flowing.  I came home ready to get down to work!

….but WHAT work?  I am working on a sample for some lengthy text, an excerpt from the Robert Frost poem, “Mowing.”  This poem ends with:                    The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows. 

  And I’m thinking about a photographic image that Christopher took from the passenger seat of our new car while facing backwards.  The photo was taken at dusk with with the fading light in the distance while cars are zooming along into the night, away from the light.  The image has a lot of motion and light and dark in it….it intrigues me.