The class has officially begun.

Warren, student #2, arrived today. There he is front and center, sitting next to Asti. I'm back there at the projector, Eva is in the pink robe. Kippy is somewhere in the front of the room.

Warren's from Albany, NY. Both of my parents were from Albany. Almost all my cousins still live there. I'm sure we'll find something in common besides art before the class is over. Another student is expected tomorrow, and there will be some local students coming for the day throughout the week.

We were to begin the workshop tonight at 6:00 with a slide show and demonstration. Kippy had invited artists from the area to watch. Since I've got such a small class, I was a little apprehensive about nobody showing up. But by 6:10, the room was filled with an enthusiastic audience, very few of whom spoke English, most of whom were from the dinner party the other night at Caroline and Serge's. Kippy translated for me. We got through half the slide show and the projector decided to misbehave, so we went on to the demonstration.

Eva was a wonderful model, which made my job very easy. The evening lasted almost two hours and went very well. Everybody seemed impressed, several people were asking about getting into the class, the demo piece itself wasn't embarrassing like they sometimes can be. After the crowd departed, Warren, Asti, Eva and I went into the house to have dinner with Kippy and Jerome. Eggplant au gratin, salad, cheeses, wine (I think Catherine may have been right about French wine not making you drunk, because I've certainly tried to prove her wrong). We stayed up way too late at the table talking about art. Such a passionate evening we all should have.

Tomorrow morning, 9 a.m., we're to be at our easels. The class has officially begun.

A few thing's I'll do differently, if I get to come back next year: get a watch, bring a stylish blazer, speak French.

To answer some of Jim N.'s questions: I'm using a Nikon D80. That was not me with my foot up on the post in the street scene yesterday, that was Eva, the model. I'm using a Mac PowerBook G4, which I bought just before I left home. I got it from ONYX, in Decatur, Ga, for about $275.00. They receive donated used computer equipment, refurbish it, sell it, and donate the proceeds to charity. You can get some good computers for dirt cheap. Check them out: http://theocf.net/index.php?cpage=mission