Watercolorist Michael Reardon recently recounted an episode in plein air painting on his Facebook page.
“Sunday’s plein air effort on San Francisco’s Embarcadero was an adventure,” says Reardon. “The subject fireboat decided on an excursion as I started to paint, then returned as I was finishing. Then, as I started to pack up, the wind blew my umbrella and tripod over. Luckily, no harm done, except my new squirrel mop rolled into the bay, 15 feet below. One of my fellow painters spotted some kayakers about 100 yards out. We flagged them down, and they came to the rescue, tossing the floating brush up onto the deck. I’m sure that breaks all of the rules on the care of brushes, but I’ll take it.”
We asked Reardon how his brush fared. “I tested it yesterday,” he said. “It seems to have survived.”
