Sometimes I have to remind myself why we started this project. It's easy to get carried away with the fun of reno and "glamping."
Yet, Van Go has a more serious purpose. This project is all about the art. And so, over the past several months, since I last posted, I have been trying to retrofit our "home away from home" as my workspace.
But one day, before I had quite completed the organization and gathering of my art supplies for Van Go, the "hare" (aka my other half) decided it was high time that we take a trial run, plein air outing.
He dashed off to check on his business, and to be sure that his managers had all in hand before he spontaneously took the afternoon as a holiday.
I began to scramble for supplies. I had begun to gather things previously as you can see in the following pictures...
It wasn't a bad start. Nevertheless, I hadn't gotten very far with the gathering of my supplies.
But never mind that. The "hare" was enthused and as usual, the "tortoise" tried to accommodate.
I hurriedly took Bentley out for his morning walk, and upon my return, I began to pull together more supplies. In anticipation of the day's outing, I even sprayed the shoes I intended to wear with insect repellent. Experience has taught me that during the height of Spring, ticks and other creepy crawlies become active.
Then, I scrambled to find my favorite backpack before I changed into appropriate painting clothes.
That change, however, threw me into crisis mode. You see, near my knee, happy as she pleased, a female lone star tick had taken up residence during my walk with Bentley.
I hadn't even left my own neighborhood! Sheesh.
There were no plein air bragging rights to be had from this tick.
Needless to say, I brandished a set of tweezers and sent my unwanted guest packing. Then, I panicked and launched into full-on antiseptic mode.
For this reason, I unfortunately had not completed my preparations for the day's outing when my enthusiastic other half arrived home to begin our afternoon's adventure.
"Are you sure you still wish to go?" he asked after hearing the explanation for my disarray.
Yet, in spite of the day's chaotic beginning, I was not easily deterred from an opportunity to try out our new transport. I insisted on going along for the ride. And what a ride it turned out to be!
Apparently, in his usual hurried manner, the "hare" had not secured all of Van Go's cabinet drawers. You can well imagine Bentley's justified consternation when the "hare" turned the key in the ignition and Van Go lurched forward. The rogue drawers rolled out, and then, immediately and magically rolled again...returning to their proper places. That's right. In and out, the drawers rolled...repeatedly.
And since I couldn't immediately discover where my other half had stored what I needed to secure the drawers, our poor pup was quite terrified by the time we arrived at our destination.
In fact, Bentley has been rather distrustful of those mischievous drawers ever since. Fortunately for our thoroughly dismayed, canine companion, that day's journey wasn't a long one.
We arrived at our local city docks and I gathered what supplies I had previously stashed in Van Go. I found a beautiful location near the river...
However, within minutes of setting up my easel and while still pulling my other supplies from my pack, a great gust of wind swept through the trees and carried off a number of my supplies including several of my favorite paint brushes. Yes, I had forgotten my weights and my clips.
The "hare" volunteered to scramble down the river embankment to retrieve some of my prodigal brushes. And so began our afternoon struggle against the elements.
And while I am not new to plein air painting, my set up in Van Go is most certainly new. Yup. I obviously needed more time to work out how to best organize my supplies.
So, it is back to the drawing board...quite literally. Since that day, this "tortoise" has been gradually planning the storage space and slowly modifying camping equipment in order to more efficiently organize and accommodate supplies...
And of course, I've also been completing a round of antibiotics as a result of my earlier encounter that day.
As a result, I'm sorry to say that I have no pictures to share of my first Van Go plein air adventure. Quite honestly, it was all I could do to keep my supplies from blowing away in the wind as did the nannies in Disney's classic film, Mary Poppins.
Lesson learned. I cannot rely on my current RV organization for painting supplies. In fact, from this point forward, I plan to stow my pre-packed gear in Van Go's "basement."
Back soon to share my workspace solutions for storing art supplies in an RV...
And when I return, I also promise to post some photos of our more successful creative outings with Van Go.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more tales of our successes as well as hilarious mishaps. I'm sure there will be aplenty.
After all, we'll undoubtedly be taking a few more trial journeys in the near future as we further test Van Go's "road worthiness."
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