Painting

Jared's mom went with her sister Debbie to Florida to get certified as Bob Ross painting instructors. Debbie invited us over so we could paint and she could teach us a class on landscapes. Jared has always been a bit of an artist and was excited to paint again. I have never painted and can't do anything more then a stick figure so I was nervous but excited to get the chance to see if I really could be artistic with some guidance.

We went up on a Saturday afternoon, set the kids up in the play room, and got to work. Unfortunately, Sierra is in a clingy stage and just wants to be with me and do what I'm doing. I had to juggle holding her, keeping her away from the paint, and painting. For the most part it was fine until the very end  when the kids were starving and Sierra decided to paint my jeans.

    

And we're off. The beginning of our sky and lake. 

Debbie had her easel in the front showing us what to do.

 Preston and Shelly doing some painting of their own

 That little sneak kept trying to get my brushes and paint on my picture

 Our mountains are in. Sereen's is on the left and Jared's on the right

 working on my trees

 Jared's with the start of his trees

 Sereen's painting with the beginning of the bushes. Almost done. 

 The start of Jared's bushes

 Jenelle working hard on her painting in the studio (Debbie's basement)

 Sereen's finished picture.

There's a lot more contrast in person and I wish my bushes were different. By the time I was working on them the kids were falling apart and I was just trying to get done. I was also trying to follow each step without knowing what the end result would be or what I was trying to accomplish. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out if only I had stopped before adding the bushes. Now that I have a better idea of what I am doing I want to do it again.

Jared's finished picture

He will always be the artist in this family. I love his understanding of color and perspective. he was very helpful to me. Debbie did a great job teaching us the technique but I was glad to have both her and Jared help me understand what I was doing. I hope our kids take after him.

We both had so much fun and can't wait for an opportunity to do it again. Now we have to decide where the best place to hang the pictures will be.