March 23, 2015

The 2015 season of workshops at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops has begun. The first workshop was a wonderful 5-day workshop taught by Leah Lopez, “Still Life to Landscapes.”

Below is an unfinished painting that was part of a demo presented by Leah on the first day.

Everyone set up their workspace and got right to work.

This class really enjoyed the dinner cuisine and showed up early and eager for dinner each night. Charles N., who had come along to while his wife took the workshop, said, “My wife will want to come back for a workshop, but I’ll want to come back for the food. You really should tell people about the wonderful food.”

One of the starters for this year is a Xiaolong Bao, a Shanghai-style soup dumpling! Yum.

On one of the next days, Leah challenged the group with 15 minute exercise painting landscape impressions.

Jayne was seriously intent on her still life painting!

Below is another of the dishes, Red Cooked Chicken, another Shanghai-style dish. The chicken was so tender and flavorful, and just fell off the bones.

Here is chef Mark, dishing up a helping of Yongchow Fried Rice with Roasted Pork, Shrimp, Peas, that is then topped with tender slices of skirt steak.

One of my favorites of this year are the Cha Siu Bao, Pork Buns. They are made fresh in our kitchen the day that they are served. I could make a meal of just these!

Saturday was check out day, but some of the folks stuck around to enjoy the annual St Patrick’s Day parade that marches right past the front of the inn. It had snowed a couple of inches the night before, but with a little delay in the start time of the parade, by the time it did start most of the new snow had already melted!