Just when I need it most, friends appear with riches. It’s been like that all week. Margie Guyot writes:
Tuesday night I got home from Geezer Band rehearsal around 9 and was so WIRED! The full moon was calling me. How could I NOT go out painting? I’d never gone out doing plein-air full moon painting before, but what the heck — nothing ventured, nothing gained! I surprised my 2 studio cats when I threw on the lights and pre-mixed a couple colors. Night painting is pretty easy — you’d only have 3 values: the dark, the sky and the moon.
First stop was Rex Beach. I drove right down to the water and had the entire coastline to myself (again). Did 2 paintings there. The second one was just the moon and a passing cloud. It was surprising to see the rust tones in the cloud! All I could hear were gentle waves lapping the shore and an occasional coyote in the distance. Still, I did turn around once or twice to check that no cougar or bear was about to maul me.
I used low gear to gingerly edge out of the sand and then headed up to Scott Road, where I did a third painting. It was so much fun, I could have stayed up all night, painting. But I was out of blank panels. Surprisingly, I only had to turn on the flashlight a few times. The moonlight was that strong.
Maybe this winter I’ll venture out in the snow for a full moon painting.
Torch Lake Views 
Wendi
October 14, 2011
Really nice!
Gerry
October 14, 2011
I thought so too – I keep going back to admire them. Margie was born to paint the northern Michigan sky.
Dawn
October 15, 2011
I thought I was looking at a Van Gogh! Then when I read the rest I wondered how it works to paint in the night. How cool. Lovely lovely idea.
Gerry
October 15, 2011
I think it must be wonderful fun to paint by the light of the moon. It really was bright the other night, and I suspect Margie of being half firefly, which explains how she does it. The winter full moon casts sharp shadows on the snow. I can hardly wait to see what she does then.
uphilldowndale
October 16, 2011
Oh woweeeeee, awe and envy, how I wish I could do that!
Not sure about the prospect of bears, oh no; bears were a regular feature of my fever dreams of childhood…..
Gerry
October 16, 2011
Margie doesn’t believe me about the bear, of course, but Kurt Koerber has seen it, going about its bearly business between the shore and the flat road. I am fond of bears myself, but I like to keep a respectful distance.
Dawn
October 16, 2011
PS: I think playing in a Geezer Band would be an excellent experience as well. Come to think of it – quite a few of us in the community band I play with are geezers…but we also have some high school students…so I guess we aren’t really a geezer band in total.
Gerry
October 16, 2011
Lessee . . . divide the average decrepitude by the hypotenuse of the – no, wait, that can’t be it.
I think you’re safe.
Sybil
October 16, 2011
What amazing images ! I love the way she had depicted the moonlit night.
Gerry
October 16, 2011
Me too, me too. I’ve been looking at these pictures a lot while pounding away on a writer’s logjam.
Joss
October 18, 2011
~Wow! I love these paintings. Especially good is how Margie has mixed just the right colour for the reflection of moonlight on the road. That’s really just how it looks. But she must have been very bold to lay it on. Bold also to sit alone on an empty beach in the middle of the night when there might be a bear around.
Gerry
October 18, 2011
Margie is intrepid. And she doesn’t believe in the bear anyway. But you are exactly right–she is very bold, in the seeing and in the laying on of paint.