Open Studios weekend was created by the Vermont Crafts Council shortly before we moved here. It's a showcase for the state's craftspersons, from jewelers to potters, metal workers to furniture makers. A few years later those in the arts, painters and sculptors, were invited to open their studios as well. This year we decided to join in. We had converted our garage to a new studio last summer, more than doubling our work space, so we felt like we had a respectable place to show our work. Most of the week before the event was spent mailing flyers, handing out tour maps, waterproofing and posting road signs, cleaning and organizing, and hanging drawings, paintings and giclee prints in our two studios. Saturday morning started slowly but we had advertised that we would do a demonstration at 2 o'clock so we expected things to pick up later. I was going to do the demo and thought it would be fun for the visitors to watch as I prepared my canvas. I took out a couple of canvases that I had primed last year and began to restretch them. Rebecca chatted with me as I worked. Mike and Kathye wandered back and forth between the two studios trying to decide whether to buy my oil painting or Elizabeth's giclee print, they bought both. Bernice came by as I began to tone the canvases with rabbit skin glue and raw umber pigment. Now it was getting late so I quickly cut open a cantaloupe, grabbed a few grapes from the fruit basket and placed them in a stem bowl, tossed a kitchen towel and the knife on the cutting board, put on my smock and greeted those who were waiting to see me paint. For the next 2 hours I worked hard, painting with bold, broad brushwork, laying in masses of light and color, pushing the painting along much faster than my usual pace, all the while telling stories and answering questions. Some people stayed to the end, others left to continue the studio tour, new arrivals drifted in to watch or peruse the paintings on the walls. There was a lot going on, it was swirling around me but I was calm, happy, at peace...I was at my easel.....