A model and my first class!

This is a model from a couple of evenings ago, I took the photo in the Art League School studio where I painted the model and it’s not the best photo. I gave the painting to the model, he was so happy to have it. He said nobody had ever given him a painting before. I wish I would have had more time to work on it, it was a 30 minute pose. I think my favorite thing about this little painting are the bluish greys I somehow managed to achieve in my whirlwind of painting around his chin and neck where the light meets the dark. It’s a lot of fun to just paint quickly, so quickly that I don’t have time to analyze what I’m doing, I think instincts take over. And with a 30 minute pose there isn’t any pressure to produce anything great. This is 8″x10″ oil on canvas.

This past weekend I taught my first class! I was invited to teach an art class at my church’s women’s retreat: The St. John the Divine Episcopal Church Women’s Retreat at Camp Allen. I packed up and left Friday afternoon and was at the retreat in an hour and a half. Leaving Houston you quickly get into pastures with barns and horses along the highway, it was very picturesque.

About 120 ladies attended the retreat, the speaker for the weekend was Renee Swope from Proverbs31 Ministries. She gave 3 inspirational and uplifting talks about Jesus’ love for us. She also talked about friendships and the bumps that sometimes come along in friendships. Saturday evening she gave a talk about turning the magnifying glass away from our own problems and on to God. It was a wonderful weekend full of fellowship, worship and Bar-B-Q.

The first half of the weekend wasn’t as relaxing as I would have liked for one reason: I was teaching a class on Saturday! It all turned out well. Twenty women signed up for my class on sketching. I decided a class on painting was too much to do in an hour and a half so I suggested a sketch class 6 months ago when I was asked to teach. I gave my students 🙂 some basic lessons on how to measure, I showed them samples of my own sketchbooks and drawing examples from books. I brought a box of props and set them all up on 3 round tables and the ladies sat around the tables and sketched with sketchbooks provided by the church. Everyone had a great time and it was a rewarding experience to teach people to do something they didn’t think they could do. Plus it was a lot of fun and I got to know some of the amazing women at the retreat.

I should have taken a photo of my class, but I didn’t. My camera was back in my room and I had done so much running around between the main building and the rooms that I just ran out of time before the class. I did take a photo of the view from the chapel just after the Sunday morning service so at least you can get an idea of the landscape at Camp Allen.

On the gardening front: I got back from Camp Allen Sunday afternoon and meanwhile, my little zucchini and cucumber plants are getting bigger. The weather is too bad to get out there and transplant them to the garden. I hope we get a nice day soon because I think these plants need to be in the garden!