Home Again with Paintings

The Junk Diva called me a few minutes ago and reminded me that I had not posted anything about being home - it is good to have friends who worry about you (and harass you when you don't blog). She was also checking on me to see how I was handling Jesse's trip to France, which started today. Jesse text(ed) me this morning and called me this afternoon. I hope that is a sign that she will continue to communicate while she is away. The Diva's daughter returns from NY soon. In the meantime, we both may hang socks on our ears and sing a sad song.


My workshop went very well. I am pleased as punch with the teacher. I do have to tell a funny story on him. He is a very smart guy. He is well traveled and has many great stories to tell and does so often. But every now and then we all slip up while talking, and this is one of his mistakes that made me almost burst out laughing. I did refrain, but my blogger mind was clicking. I will just throw this out there and see if anyone catches the mistake:

Barb and I took our WC teacher out to eat. Barb asked Steve about his family. He mentioned his children and grandchildren. The conversation continued about his granddaughter. He said she was dating a guy who was an Iraq War Veteran, who had been wounded by an IUD.


I posted some of Steve's paintings earlier, but here are mine from the workshop. Both paintings need more work, and so do the photos that I took of them, but I'm tired and it is late. Remember that you can click on the image to enlarge.The first one is done on a full size sheet of paper (22x30). It took me several days to get this one painted. This lesson was on water reflection and that was my main focus. Later, Steve painted an Italy scene, and we learned more about painting color into the buildings. Next time I will combine my lessons and do better - hopefully.


Here is Steve's Italy painting, which is not finished, but very nice.


Today I started this little boat. Once again, my focus was on the reflection. To do a good reflection, you must start with the object so that you can paint its reflection. I was not concerned with the background, which caused the boat to look rather simple, clean, and kind of fun. The ladies in the workshop called it "the happy little boat."


Speaking of ladies in the workshop, I really enjoyed the ladies in the class. Most were Dallas women, some a bit richy, but all fun and friendly. The Artist Showplace at Coit and Araphoe was a great art gallery and a perfect place for a workshop. I would do it again in a heart beat.