Canvas #2 Has Begun!

I set up Canvas #2 on Saturday.  The Texas heat has already lowered its lid over my corner of the world.  The lake was no longer humming with breezy spring activity, and few people stopped to paint.  I was wondering if I should have set up closer to the playground, when a runner came along, announced that he was heading off to art school in the fall, and jumped into painting with gusto and panache.  First he smeared his hand red and made an arching row of handprints to follow the blue lines I had painted.  Then he mixed water into red, yellow, and green, and tinged areas of the canvas with subtle, transparent washes.  He tried several brushes, splattering thin yellow over the washes.  He told me about his latest project, which had involved homemade paint mixed from dirt and clear gesso.  I regret not snapping a photo of this fearless artist (who was flecked with paint by the time he was done), but I was too engrossed in watching his process to think of my camera.