The day started out cold but sunny. Unfortunately the sun gradually disappeared as clouds slowly creeped across the sky, the temperature actually seemed to drop further, a breeze came up, and a damp chill began to penetrate through our multi-layered clothes. It wasn't supposed to be that way. After all it is Spring and the paint-out coordinator had ordered warm sunshine for the day.

The first people to arrive set up in the area of the Waterford Mill, painting the fields and trees along the Catoctin Creek. One of them, Margaret Huddy did a wonderful watercolor of a stately Sycamore along the creek. I understand she is a Sycamoreophile and is currently looking for a replacement for the pet Sycamore she has been painting for 25 years. Sadly, it is dying. Perhaps the strain of being an artist?s model was too much for it.

Others chose to paint the houses and streets of Waterford. "Homeless" Bill Schmidt placed himself in front of the Waterford Mill on a small triangle of land, inches from cars coming around the corner of the mill - since the street actually touches the mill, with no room for sidewalk or any other such extravagance. He then proceeded to paint the scene up Bond Street with the John Wesley Church and the Belland House. Somewhere he found a wonderful ray of (very fictional) sunlight that lit up his painting on this gray and cloudy day. It was a superb use of his artistic license

Still others, such as Sara Poly, Fiona Corn, and guest Valerie Craig chose to paint more rustic country scenes in the surrounding area.

We met on the patio in back of the Mill and had our lunch at 12:00 and the critique at 12:30. We were then treated to a showing of the Waterford paintings of an early WSLP painter, Garnet Jex, at the Loudoun Mutual Insurance Company. The showing was arranged by our kind host, Anne Belland, a resident of Waterford.

Members and Guests present: Lani Browning, Marietje Chamberlain, Edward Cooper, Fiona Corn, Michael Heylin, Margaret Huddy, Harry Jaecks, Jean Jaecks, Leonard Justinian, Al Marra, Barbara Nuss, Sara Poly, Bill Schmidt, and Guests Valerie Craig, Christine Lashley, and J. Dunn Rosenberg