Another hobby ruled out

We have traveled about 900 miles north of home and currently visiting our daughter Katie and her husband Dain in Dayton, Ohio.  We made a stop in Georgia to visit our Grandson Aleister and his parents.  It was great to see them for this brief visit, but we plan to be back in just a few weeks.  In one of my rare photographic failures, I did not get a single picture. 

 

Katie arranged for us to take a painting lesson with a local organization called Raise Your Brush.  I agreed to go along as the comic relief for this experience.  I was known in college as a the guy who had a hard time drawing a straight course line on a chart with a straight ruler, so I knew this was going to be a humbling experience for me.

One of the good parts of this experience was apparent right away.  They encouraged you  to have a glass of wine to relax and let the artistic juices flow.  I was beginning to feel artsy.   After gathering our color palettes and setting up in a position to view the instructor and her canvas, let the magic begin.

Our leader walked us through each  phrase of the project.  There was a finished work on display that  we were essentially going to copy.  We started with the back ground, which worked out for me, as it was basically like getting the right color for a house painting project and just applying the right amount of paint.

Then came the hard part, actually putting in the details of this landscape scene.  Following the instructors examples and keeping an eye on the finished sample, we moved along.  It turned out that my deciding that more trees was better tended to deform the symmetry of the structure.  So much for more is better. Finally, we closed in on the final steps and a new piece of art was complete.

Anneke and Katie did a pretty good job on theirs.  I can honestly say that I was not as embarrassed as I expected to be, but clearly my future as an artist is not in the works.  Perhaps as one of those starving artists that were selling their works for give a way prices.