Stormy End

Tonight was the fourth and last night of the current run of woodcut classes in Belmar.  One change was expected- an extra student.  The extra participant is actually from the next class, but has to miss one of the weeks, so is making it up by attending this time.  As always, I started getting ready early in the day, loading most of the car by mid day, except for the wood, which could be damaged by long exposure to the heat inside a car in summer.  Unfortunately, for the second consecutive day, major rain was expected for late afternoon and/or early evening.  Intermittent showers arrived in late afternoon, so I went to the trouble of packaging my 2'x4' piece of wood in two big contractor garbage bags.  At the appropriate time (and in a lull where few drops were falling) I loaded that in my car, then went back to get the last few items- my backpack, food for dinner, etc.  Suddenly the real rain arrived.  Waited a few minutes to see if it was just a quick passing shower, but without time to waste, I put up my umbrella and started the walk to where my car was parked.  Before I made it halfway around the building, the rain had become torrential and the umbrella was doing little good.  Everything I was carrying and wearing was thoroughly soaked by the time I got in my car, but I was there, with 45 minutes to travel the 3 miles to Belmar.  Could have used a little more. Route 35 was quickly being overcome by the rain.  Not yet flooded, but I was kicking up a lot of water as I drove, and had to keep my speed to half the limit.  Then the road was closed at 16th Avenue, a section along the river that can flood in heavy rains like this one.  We were all diverted up 16th, but that wasn't moving much either.  Very gradually I crept up to the light at Route 71, where police were now directing traffic, and once across, things got a little better.  Still a lot of water, but the rain was lightening a little, and I could steer around the bigger puddles.  Main Street was passable with care, and I was in the Boatworks parking lot at exactly the official start time of class, and curious how many would show up.  Later the news would tell me we had gotten about 3 inches of rain today, and when you throw in yesterday's storms, two months worth of rain in two days.

I got the building open, letting in my newest student, who lives in town.  And my two beginners of the past session pulled up shortly after, including the one who comes down from North Jersey, who probably made most of that trip before this weather arrived.  I had to wait until the rain eased a little to unload most of the supplies, but I brought in my backpack, which had the cutting tools and some of the print examples I had.  We got out the tables so people could continue with last minute cutting, as I looked at progress so far and made suggestions.  Eventually the rain eased some more, allowing me to get everything else from the car, and letting my last student arrive, giving me all four.

Had a lot going on, alternating between my newest student (reviewing past work, looking at sketches, showing examples from books, and preparing her a wood block) and beginners in their fourth week.  Sue, one of that second group, had gotten some pine pieces and started 3 other blocks, and had pulled proofs of one of those and of her birch block.  The proofs were rough, but gave her information she used to make adjustments.  Toward the end of class she was ready to try again, and between her additional cutting and the better ink, brayers, and paper I was supplying (plus printing lesson), there were improvements.  One of the two reprinted blocks can be seen above.

And that made it time to clean up and clear out.  Rain had come and gone a few times, but was done at this point, making loading easier.  My two who started four weeks ago seem very happy with progress on their projects and tell me they learned so much and plan to be back for the next session.  My newest student had started her drawing on the wood, which she plans to finish before we start up again, to be ready to start cutting in week one.  Whether Mary comes back is mostly dependent on if she has other commitments, but whenever I see her next (class, critique), I'm sure she'll have something new to show me.