I just had a wonderful weekend in New Orleans!  Saturday was the reception for the Louisiana Watercolor Society’s 44th International Exhibition at the Garden District Gallery.  It was a such a treat meeting some of the other artists in the show.  I had a chance to meet David Poxon via Skype, since he is in the UK, and a fellow Facebook friend Vicki Monette, whom I got to know through Carrie Waller. So nice to finally meet her in person.   All had fabulous work in the show.  Sorry I didn’t get to meet Facebook friends, Carrie, Iain Stewart, and Arena Shawn, who couldn’t make the reception but got to see their lovely paintings.   Thanks to judge Anne Abgott for including my painting in the show and for jurying such a well balanced beautiful body of work for this exhibition!  And a special thank you to all the LWS members who organized the show.  Without all of their hard work these events wouldn’t happen!

I didn’t know the long weekend was going to start off with such an adventure.  I had dinner with friends Friday evening when Iarrived only to come out of the restaurant in a torrential downpour, and my phone piercing my ear drums to tell us there were flash flood warnings.  Luckily we werein and SUV and my friend had experience driving through flood water. Looking down the side streets off of St. Charles Ave.,  on the way back to the inn, I was getting a bit nervous seeing water up to the middle of doors on the parked cars!  With my friends expert driving, we made it to the street where my car was parked and luckily the water hadn’t passed the bottom of my car door.  If I had been parked on the South side of St. Charles, I would have been in trouble!  I moved my car to higher ground and waded back to my room with water almost up to my knees! (You will just have to trust me, it was dark and I was a bit scattered to take pictures!) By morning the water was gone and all had gone back to normal.

After the reception Saturday afternoon and dinner,  I was lucky to stumble upon the annual Champagne Stroll on Magazine Street!  Sunday, I spent the day wondering around the French Quarter and the Garden District, getting inspired by all the beautiful iron work and architecture and taking lots of photos.  I’ve already got some potential painting ideas swimming in my head!

On a side note, speaking of Streetcar Named Desire, in the movie actress Kim Hunter,  won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1951 for her role as Stella.  Iv'e always had an affinity for this actress, because we had the same name until I got married! :-)