I won a prize! Mama and I went up to the art show in Linden (Texas) yesterday. "Blue Awnings" had a red ribbon (2nd place) on it!!!!! That really made my day. I also get a cash prize. I don't know how much--they have to mail the check to me because they didn't get them cut in time to give them out yesterday. They had some really neat artwork there. And my painting got 2nd prize in its division! He-he!!!!

We left yesterday around 9:30 a.m. After gassing up, we were on our way. The latest weather report I'd heard was that the rainstorms we'd been having would be moving out by the afternoon, so we decided to go ahead and make a day of it as we'd originally planned. We went first to Caddo Lake State Park. We ate lunch, then drove around a little. We hadn't been to the park itself in over 20 years when we had camped there. It's changed a little since then! Not the natural beauty--just the layout. They used to have a swimming area, which is no longer there. The boat ramp is different as well. Those are the two things that really stuck out to me. (Keeping in mind I was only maybe 6 or 7 years old the last time we were there!) I finally settled on the fishing pier to set up to paint. I had my new pochade box (a studio in a box) and tripod. This set-up is SO much better than either my paintbox or my french easel! Easier to use than the former, more compact than the latter. Unfortunately, having better equipment by itself hasn't improved my plein-air painting ability. The sketch I did wasn't bad in and of itself, but I still haven't mastered the process. Oh well. After I did as much on the sketch as I could, I took some photos with my digital camera. Then we left and went to Jefferson. We parked next to The Bakery and first bought a loaf of bread there. After depositing it in the van, we walked around some and went into a (very high-end) antiques store and the General Store. Then we decided to go on to Linden and see the show, hoping I'd maybe find someplace else to paint. When we got to Linden, we had no trouble finding a parking place and went in to see the art show. As I said, they had some really neat artwork, including paintings, drawings, photos, and sculptures. When we had seen all there was to see there and at their downtown festival, there was still about an hour before the art show was over and I could pick up my paintings. (Actually I could have taken them home right then, but I didn't think that would be fair to the show organizers.) So we decided to drive around the area a little. It was a really nice drive, especially since we were on a back- road and so didn't have any 18-wheelers bearing down on us. We ended up in Atlanta. I had never been in the downtown area there, so we stopped and I took some more pictures of some of the older buildings. I don't know if any of them will end up as paintings, but we'll see.