Missouri

In celebration of my wonderful new knee* I spent nine days covering 1400 miles of the midwestern United States. When I left home in New England with an airline ticket and a rental car reservation I knew there was a possibility of painting in seven states. I also knew everything would have to fall in place perfectly for that to happen. It was raining when I picked up my snazzy little screaming red Fiesta so Avis gave me a big umbrella to use and return with the car. That must have been the lucky charm. I never saw another drop of rain for nine days. I spent the afternoon at the St. Louis Art Museum and checked out downtown a bit for prospective painting sites.

When in doubt, do the waterfront; early morning found me trying to be inconspicuous in a sparsely populated derelict neighborhood on the banks of the Mississippi River.  But I loved the view of layers of urban architectural history including the famous Gateway Arch. It was good enough for Lewis & Clark to start their monumental voyage of discovery there, it was good enough for me to start my little sojourn as well. 

Reasonably happy with the morning's results I pulled my "stealth! brightest red on earth" Fiesta out of the bushes where I had attempted to hide her (and all my valuables) and I put in my longest day of driving to Rogers, Arkansas due south west.

 9 x 12  soft pastel on coated paper 

*I had a total right knee replacement on February 25th and wish I had done it way sooner. So if any of you are contemplating this surgery, I encourage you, "Do it". Once you've survived the first month of hell things start looking up and at my age the months do sort of fly by...before you know it you'll be doing stuff you haven't done lately. I must thank my All-Star Cast of supporters ( husband and family, surgeon, nurses, physical therapist, doctor of accupuncture and chinese medicine, massage therapist and my friends) for my complete and speedy recovery. YES! (oops, forgot all the rest of you taxpayers for medicare)....thank you...I mean to use it well.