HB Plein Aire Competition

Huntington Beach has for the last 5 years hosted a "plein aire" competition. I am participating for my third year. En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. When I was in high school we called it "Painting on Location". But with the advent of millions of wineries in California and the popularity of Italian cooking shows that term just doesn't cut it anymore. Plein Aire painting, as romantic as it sounds, is really more like camping. You are outside in the elements and if you want to do it right you have lot's of equipment. You have to be organized and you have to be prepared. Today I was outside painting for three hours. I set up my easle and camp stool and worked hard. I got too much sun, so I drank a lot of water, which I had packed, and then I had to pee. Since you are in "plein aire" you must search for a "camode". I found mine in a nearby Burger King. I rudely ran past two asian ladys and flung open the door of the restaurant to get to the bathroom. They thought I was being polite, so they said thank you. They didn't realize I was jumping ahead of them in desperation. I got to the bathroom, unzipped my shorts and my shorts fell down. Somewhere in plein aire my button to my shorts had popped off. So holding my shorts up I dashed to my car and ran home and changed. I forgot the "ten essentials". I need to add safety pins to my ever growing list of supplies. Anyway, the painting above I did two days ago for the competition. Stay tuned...