Paint Nite

Well, I've never done this before.

Sarah and I decided to go to check out Paint Nite, and we had a fun time. This is the painting we were there to make (or some version of it).

That's lovely, isn't it?

I like it better in detail, but I only spent 20 seconds looking at each painting on the website, and those were tiny. Sarah and I both picked out ones we liked, then found one in common.

I have seen a lot of people doing these, and they swear they're having fun, so I agreed, but I figured I would probably throw my painting out.

It was much nicer than I expected, because the instructor really laid every step out along the way, and invited us to go rogue as we felt the urge. She warned me that if I made my background too dark, I would lose the contrast, but I was planning on going super bright in the foreground. It was really nice to have no worries about messing it up. I did not care, so I happily carried on with my moody mountains.

 I got a little focused on my mountains.

I couldn't help myself. Look at that- it's like I live here. I didn't see this then, but I kind of wish I had continued in this direction and not made my damn grassy knoll, or whatever the hell that was.

Here is Sarah working on her tree. As you can see, we both rejected a pale and hazy background. Sarah had a lovely rosy sky and green trees at the water's edge. And just look at that alpine lake! Everybody loved her colors.

Here is my finished product. I was surprised that I liked it so much. It feels very me, like this is how I would illustrate children's books. It's detailed and has dark, rich colors, and those are things I gravitate towards.

Right before I painted the tree, I had this moment where I wanted to paint a different kind of tree, because I did not feel like this one belonged here. I could not think of what to put instead, so I went ahead with the red. Tonight I met Elaine for dinner and showed her this picture, and she thought it looked like Topaz. Now that I think about it, that's probably exactly what I was painting. I think I have actually taken this picture many times over the years, except that tree is a cottonwood, and what's blowing are the seeds- these little white puffs. They are very pretty, but they will mess up your allergies. So I think if I had figured that out, a cottonwood would have been neat. Then I could have painted the DG around it, that would have been way easier than grass. Mom, I would like to discuss my technique and how to show perspective and detail in the foreground. Anyway, I like my painting, and not only am I not throwing it out- I am looking for a place to hang it! It's kind of hard to see it here, but Sarah and the instructor really liked the color of my water. Sarah's response was my quote of the night: "I wanna swim in yo' lake, Jenny!"

I wrote and wrote and consulted and wrote and submitted for editing and over and over again this weekend, but this morning I got up insanely early and went to work to complete my application for one of the leadership programs. I was done writing pretty fast and edited in between other duties. I was finished really early, and spent the rest of the day fielding phone calls and application submissions from people who procrastinate even more than me. Or maybe I'm getting better. Two people sent theirs in with only four minutes to spare.

I am so relieved. That has been on my list of things to accomplish for weeks, and I got it done!!! I intend to sleep so well...

but first, I was on a roll, so I decided to continue. I had a leftover cat shelf from a furniture rearrangement, so I brought it into work and a coworker took it home and trimmed it down for me. I stopped at Home Depot tonight for some hardware and installed the piece that Solo has needed for two years. The gap between these two steps was sketchy for her, so I fixed it with a ramp, asking Grampy to send some guidance my way as I muddled through. She's much happier about it than she looks.