Tornado Watch and Something Weird in the Air

Today was going to be a weird kind of day. The weatherman had predicted rain,thunderstorms and tornados. It didn't look too threatening to me so I waited for Tim to arrive. It was his turn to drive and buy breakfast today. We were checking out a new breakfast watering hole called Country Cooking by none other than Granma Masons. We never actually saw Nanny  (Gra nny)and the food was so so.

Tim has a difficult time deciding just where we will paint as he really doesn't like decisions. Who does? So we drive and drive and end up in Wabash County. My GPS Iphone tells me we are going to pass Friends Cemetery. That's good. Why get buried with enemies around? We end up in Wabash again not finding any good place to settle down and set up our plein air painting "camp." We drive up hill to the courthouse and Tim says how about here? Old Lincoln is sitting on a chair in front of the courthouse just down the hill from us.The poor guy looks tired. I think that maybe this sculpture really captured this man. Civil war, slavery, abolition, secessionists, South against the North... who wouldn't get tired of that? He just sits there head bent forward and body in a slight tilt. "Should I go to bed and see what it's like in the morning?", could be the title. Lincoln's statue is in the picture at the far left center.
I decide to paint up the street and Tim is doing a pastel of the Courthouse. The sky starts to look threatening and rain is imminent.

I lay down an underpainting of gray and white and mix it on the paper surface to gesso or prime the paper. It's going to rain so  I decide to head right into the painting with the gesso still very wet. I had to lay the color in full strength as it mixed with the gray and white. Tim also said that he was trying something different with the rain not too far away. We dug in and worked feverishly for an hour. The wind had picked up and even Lincoln had grabbed hold onto the chair. My board started to shake and made it difficult to lay the color down.

Tim's phone beeped or twittered or some cell phone musical. It was his wife, 'Carolyn the Boulder Collector.' She couldn't get his mom to answer the door. She's 88 and the daughter of Art Johns a local deceased artist, signpainter and circus wagon painter. Tim's grandpa. Betty is an

artist also, Tim's mom.We packup and head home.

When we get to his mom's home we find Betty on the floor. Tim calls 911 and before we know it she is off to Marion to an orthopedic specialist with a broken hip from falling earlier that night. By the way, it never rained and the weather actually turned out quite nice. The tornado watches were also cancelled, mysteriously. I know it doesn't seem too odd but I tell you there was something weird in the air. Our pictures both took on that quality even though you might not believe me.