Out of the Box!

"Sunflowers Bouquet"

9x12 oil on paper

$60 unframed

"Faded Glory"

5x7 oil on board

$20 unframed

My friend and I decided climb out of our respective boxes and  take an oil painting class. 

It being the dead of winter and inspiration, seemingly, at an all time low, we figured it would get us our of our rut and expand our horizons.

                                          Now, I have painted oils in the past.  I took several plein aire workshops with Heiner Hertling at Germanton Gallery in Germanton, NC a few years ago and produced a fair number of mediocre to half-way decent paintings.  I enjoyed the process and the way the paint moved and it really helped me get over my fear of white paper.  While I like the medium, I don't like the mess.  Some days I only have a small amount of time to spend painting and with oil, the clean-up takes longer than that.

                                         When we arrived at class, there were 2 different areas already set up for painting.  One was a still life of a yellow pitcher with sunflowers and the other was a landscape projected onto a screen.  Two-thirds of the class was already in place to paint the landscape.  Those were the folks who looked like they knew what they were doing. 

                                        My friend and I chose the still life because we didn't know what we were doing. Or at least, I didn't feel like I did, since it had been years ago I had painted this way.  I discovered that, even though I remembered most of the mechanics of oil painting, I had lost my touch in handling the paint.  I used too much thinner.  I couldn't get the hang of laying wet paint over wet paint.  In my efforts to get the shape right, the subject kept getting bigger and bigger until I ran out of ground.  I wiped it off and started over.  I wiped it off and started again.  I whined (to my self in my head.  I learned a long, long time ago that people don't like it when old women whine aloud.)  I wanted to quit and go home.  In spite of all that septuagenarian angst, I was finally able to produce the little piece above at the top.  Not too bad for a first attempt after a long hiatus. 

             The next morning, I still had paint on my palette,

and being the self-proclaimed Queen of Left-overs, I had to do something with it.  A small palette knife and a piece of 5x7 Masonite that had been previously toned with burnt sienna came to the rescue and in a few minutes, the small painting on the right appeared.  I ran out of yellow before I ran out of flowers, but, like any left-over queen, I improvised. 

               Each could have been better, each could have been worse. But they're not too crooked.

Yep, they will do. 

It's good to get out of your box.  We never know what we can do until we try, 'til we dare to take that leap, no matter how small. 

Carole

"Sunflowers and Pears"

Watercolor

16 x 20 matted unframed $175