The first week of March came with a balmy spring weather here in Winter Park, Florida. My students and I enjoyed a visit of a plein air artist, Tim Malles, who spent four days sharing his painting expertise with us. While helping Tim work with my students during the day, I also enjoyed participating in his two sunset paint outs. I was able to pull my own paint box out and do some studies of the beautiful lakes Martha and Burkett on the banks of which is located the campus of the school where I teach.
This is me working my first night. Photo by Ed Malles.

As I was carrying my finished piece to the car that night, a strong wind started blowing and air lifted, turned around and smacked the painting right into my face—I had a big green mark on my nose, and, of course, an imprint of my nose on my canvas!

On the second night, I got ambitious with an 8x10 inch study of sunset and a 30x30 canvas…needless to say, two hours weren’t nearly enough to get both finished. I ended up working on these pieces the following day, and this is what my 30x30 painting ended up looking at the end: