It was another cold day, not as cold as in January, but this time we had rain and some snow showers and no sun. It makes for a less than enjoyable paintout. But some hardy members and guests came out to brave the wet and the cold.

The first of the insane was Daniel Wise, who was so anxious to get a chill that he showed up about 8:00 and established himself in the NPS mule shed so he could paint with his pastels. Bruce Handford showed up a little later and started a watercolor of the canal from the street until the rains came. Then he wisely joined Daniel in the mule shed. Fortunately there were no mules to dispute their occupancy.

Others of us painted along the canal in oil and acrylic until the rain made our paint slide off the canvas. Then we headed for an overhang on the foundry building and continued working, even though we really could no longer see our subject. We would occasionally dart from our protective cover to take a quick look to check up on some detail we couldn't fake.

By about 11:15 people began to suggest that an early critique would be nice because the day was becoming increasingly colder and uncomfortable. Since all those we could find agreed, we had our critique about 11:30 and people headed home.

I realized that at least one person had been missing at the critique. Craig Amaral, a guest of Bernie Dellario, had introduced himself in the morning and then we had not seen him again. So Bruce Handford and I remained in the area - Bruce painting and me drinking Starbucks coffee - because we didn't want to leave before the official critique time in case Craig or someone else showed up. And at precisely 12:00 Craig came. I was delighted to see that he was admirably dressed for cold weather painting with insulated coveralls and a parka with a fur lined hood. Obviously a man used to painting outdoors. We had a mini critique of our three paintings and then departed.

Of course, just as we were loading our cars the sky brightened and by the time I was driving across the Potomac River on I-66 the sun began to shine. It seems that I got the timing wrong once more. I just do not seem to be able to arrange the correct weather for our paintouts. My apologies to the membership for letting you down, again. You may have my resignation, just ask, please.

Members Present: Ed Cooper, Bruce Handford, Jean and Harry Jaecks, Dick Whiteley, and Daniel Wise. We were joined by guests Craig Amaral and Janice Rosenberg.