get your paint on: week 1

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

~Scott Adams

As I mentioned in my posting on Monday, I just began a course called Get Your Paint On! The course is meant to get me started as a painter, which is what I've needed for the past 15+ years I've been on hiatus! Well....drumroll.....I have finished my first painting (with a paintbrush that is)! I cannot say I'm in love with the final product, but damn does it feel good to be painting again! Pulling my brush across the canvas for hours on end, with music playing, candles burning Nag Champa into the air, and some inspirational art in front of me was so comfortable and heavenly. It took me a couple of hours to settle into it, to be patient with myself and okay with mistakes.....but now I'm there. I learned so much with just this one painting, and the gazillion mistakes I made along the way actually gave me fuel to continue because I know I will find my way back to a more natural state and my work will improve greatly if I just keep going. I'm optimistic!

So, this week's painting assignment was to use the quilts of Gee's Bend as inspiration to get some blocks of color on the canvas, as a way to experiment and get used to our mediums of choice, and painting in general. I really enjoyed the planning process....looking through a bunch of photos for inspiration, mixing colors (which I need a lot of practice with!), laying out my painting and arranging a total makeshift corner to paint in.

My choice of inspiration (along with a picture of a Gee's Bend quilt) while painting.

All lined up and ready to go!

I opted to paint on the floor because I get too antsy sitting in a chair.

The end of day 1.

My color palette (which I didn't quite follow), a Gee's Bend quilt for inspiration, and my final painting.

The final painting.

What I learned:

*I need a paint retarder because I paint very slowly.

*I need a lot of practice mixing colors in order to get a color that is similar to what I was aiming for.

*I need to and will make mistakes.

*Painting makes me happy.