Part 1 of 2

I come from a long line of talented oil painters. When my oldest son was little, I took him to private classes and sure enough he had it, too. I was intimidated. What if the painting talent skips a generation? What if my fruit bowl bananas look like street lights or something? If my drawing skills were any indication, I could easily end up with street lights in my fruit bowl. Just ask my second graders who used to tease my shamelessly.

Then there’s the other part. Somehow, I always thought of oil painting as something seniors do when they’re not at the VFW. You know, something my husband and I would do when we retired and got old.

Guess what? We’re old. Just ask our teenager.

But there’s still the commitment issue. Painting takes time, and patience, and…a paint room. Yet, I’ve been feeling a stronger and stronger prompting to put oil to canvas. In a synchronistic twist, my hair stylist (who knows everything about everything), told me about this local wine and paint night. It’s just one evening and takes place either at a local winery or wine shop. Each canvas is set up with oil paints and some starter sketches. There is a theme each meeting for the paintings.

One evening? This sounded perfect. I immediately looked up the link she sent me to Paint a Splash and checked it out. I signed up immediately, sending giddy messages to the instructor about how we had never painted before and we’re so excited about taking the class in the middle of a winery (we’re really willing to do just about anything in the middle of a winery), tasting the local wines and painting lavender fields. How awesome is that?! She seemed excited, too, eager to mold her unspoiled future Monets with her own painterly style.

You may have already guessed that the top photo is not my painting. That is a shot of the lavender fields behind Mt. Shasta which are gorgeous. That’s because we have yet to take our class. Stay tuned.

(to be continued…)