Day one of the AFA gathering got off to a somewhat unsteady start. I had signed up for a class (Pocketbooks with Chatty) that required me being there at 8am. This meant we needed to leave around quarter to seven. Luckily the sun rises early, but it also gave us much reason to learn the eccentricities of the Portland freeway system. Armed with the GPS, we managed to get most of the way there, then Tim got forced into a right-hand turn off the freeway, only to get back on and be forced off it again - this time onto another freeway that took us over a bridge and onto the wrong side of the river. The GPS tried to direct us back onto the freeway in the correct direction, but we went down when we should have gone up and ended even further off-track. Finally we managed to get onto the freeway headed in the correct direction, and then got caught up in the early morning traffic. Despite this, however, I still made it to the tutorial with five minutes to spare.
Later in the day I participated in the altered altoid tin class and between times I chatted with people, traded cards and made virtually no art at all. Lunch was a buffet-style for the first day, and the second day we had a boxed lunch - which was rather yummy. I ate mine out on the jetty with Pam, Peggy and Helen. The views of Mount Hood were stunning.
That night Meran and I headed back to their place, where we ate on the terrace (the boys had prepared dinner for us) before rushing back in for the Mean Santa. I had elected not to participate, but observing it was an education in itself. Meran and I also sorted out some props for my Chimera tutorial the following day.
The Chimera tutorial went quite well, although one of the postcards I had taken for reference mysteriously vanished. One minute I was drawing from it, the next, it had gone. I doubt anyone stole it, so suspect it must have slipped inside one of the other books I was using for reference or inside the watercolour pad, but although I hunted high and low, I could not find it. Maybe it was the imps.
Els's paper doll tutorial was really interesting too. I now want to make me some paper dolls!
Also, Pamitha's painting class. My acrylic piece got off to a reasonable start - then fell down dramatically when I decided to add in water. Which just goes to show - just because I can draw pretty well, doesn't mean I can paint worth a damn! I am thinking I should take some sort of acrylic painting class here, a couple of hours is not really long enough to learn more than the most basic of skills.
All up, I met a lot of amazing people, and it was great to be able to put the faces to the names. I traded away most of my tarot cards, and assorted other pieces, collected signatures on my AFA 2012 t-shirt and had an amazing time. It was hard, that evening, to say "goodbye" to all my new friends, knowing that it was highly unlikely I would ever see most of them again. This is the third time I have met up with NancyL, however, the first being in Hawaii, the second in Christchurch and now in Portland. Maybe one day some of them will come and visit us in New Zealand. If we have our own house - preferably with basement, I'd be up for accommodating them! (However, in our current living situation space is rather limited).
Here are a selection of the pictures Tim took. I apologise that some are a little unfocused and in others I am pulling weird expressions, and I didn't manage to get photographed with everyone. I also hope that I have captioned them all correctly. I met so many new people that it was all rather overwhelming!
One of the first things many people said upon meeting me for the first time was "gosh, you're tall!" It really does show in these pictures.
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| With Lilbad |
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| With Tomsmama |
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| Tiriki meets Nuttynanner's sheep. This cannot end well... (please excuse my terrible expression) |
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| With Els |
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| With Pamitha |
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| Cynthia, me, Sometomato, Electablue |
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| Trading cards with MelanieS |
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| Look at all those signatures! |
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| With Momoruth from Louisiana |
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| NancyL, we meet again! |
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| Chatty, Dr Kat, me, Go-go Gadget Girl |
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| With Genxster |
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| With Colorfly |
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| Let sleeping lions lie... |
Due to issues with the original dinner venue on the saturday night; Meran, James, Tim and I headed across the river and into Vancouver, Washington in search of a gluten-free restaurant. We found the Outback - an Australian themed restaurant, in which I ordered the Alice Springs chicken. The little illustrations of Australian wildlife at each table were quite quirky and fun, but the chicken was unremarkable. Meran's chicken salad was a far better choice. We made it back to the Red Lion in time for the prize giving - in which I won the award for coming the furthest. Even discounting the 12-hour flight, we had also driven around 2,600 miles to get to Portland as it was! conveneiently, the prize was a nice, flat art doll, which lay neatly in the base of my suitcase,
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