Sep_22 Falling in Love Again . . .

So, in December of 2013 I was warming up to an art class to begin in January. I realized that I needed to prepare by purchasing supplies and maybe even trying my hand at painting again, to see if I was making a wise decision. I set up a bridge table in the bedroom and gathered my new supplies around me and proceeded to slowly fall in love again with my past love - ART!

I was quite taken by surprise. I hadn’t expected this sudden, overwhelmingly positive response. I was captivated by the colours as well as the new acrylic mediums I was playing with. I was also enjoying the results - my paintings were looking good and the abstract nature of them left me room to explore and investigate.

The class launched me into my new/old pastime. I was painting at every opportunity and enjoying myself fully! I finished that class and decided to continue on my own in the small art room that I created at home. Moving out of the corner of the bedroom had become a necessity and now I was sharing the room that had been formerly called "Paul’s weight lifting room." It was now a dual purpose room with my small to large canvases edging Paul into a smaller and smaller area.

The art room takeover…if you look closely at the second and third photos you’ll see a few of Paul’s weights occupying some space.

Now that I was deeply emersed in art, it’s no surprise that I remembered my former desire to master the creating of portraits. I decided to go with the momentum and enrolled in Gary Smith’s Portraiture Class. I started off with great enthusiasm imagining that I would gain all of the skills necessary to create drawings of faces that had a certain amount of realism.

Here is Gary Smith creating a portrait of Max, my dog, which he generously gifted to me.

This is a photo of many of the members of this art class at our holiday gathering December 2014.

Halfway through the course, things started to become heavy, challenging and less enjoyable. The teacher and fellow students were wonderful. But it was me! I had lost my desire to create realism. My passion for art didn’t extend to portraiture. Again I was taken by surprise. I was called to mixed media and the abstract. Realism didn’t hold the same draw as it had in my younger years.

So here I am today, fully embracing my own style of abstract, mixed-media, spiritually inspired art!