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Ken sent me an email from work the other day telling me about a painting class his boss is taking at the Hobby Lobby store in Spartanburg. He wanted to know if I was interested in taking it, too.
It’s been a long time since I painted anything (even the walls!), but I was piqued by this suggestion and so went to the website to sign up for the class. It was $50 and included all your supplies, so I felt that was pretty reasonable. We were to learn to paint a lighthouse seascape scene which wasn’t my first choice of paintings to do, but was OK.
My instructor was this very nice lady named Betsy and there were 3 other people in the class with me. All of us had different painting backgrounds and two had taken previous classes with Betsy. She’s teaching the Bob Ross method of oil painting. I will confess to you as I confessed to her that I’ve never heard of Bob Ross. I will be doing some research on him, though.
Our tools were rather unusual (I thought). We had a 2″ brush, a 1″ brush which reminded me more of what you paint walls with than what you paint a painting with and then we had more of what I think of as artists’ brushes — a narrow, but long brush that I associate with kids watercolor books and a fan brush (looks just like it sounds) and a funny shaped knife.
We started with a blank white canvas to which we covered completely in white paint using that 2″ brush. When we were finished, we wiped it off onto a paper towel, then dipped it into some blue paint that we had semi-mixed with some white. This was to be our sky. You don’t thoroughly mix the colors as you want some streakiness to provide depth and texture.
Since our light source was supposed to be coming from the center, we wanted the corners darker and get progressivley lighter towards the middle where we were going to paint some clouds.
I learned that I suck at clouds….
I wanted stormy clouds as I was in a mood but they just didn’t want to work the way I wanted them to. Oh well, I need to get on with other things! We have to put in the water, beach and lighthouse.
Now to add the finer details of wavelets, grass and tweak some more on those darned clouds!
Well, the clouds are a little better. It’s a good think this lighthouse is SUPPOSED to look like it’s old and about to fall down, because mine certainly does! And while the water color looks stormy enough, the waves don’t exactly reflect a storm at this point. However, for a first time at painting with oil, I’m not totally disheartened. I will more than likely take another class or two from her depending on what she’s offering to paint.
On the way home, I had to stop and photograph the sky as I had a lot of clouds to see in it. I’ll have to practice painting clouds so I’m not so totally inept the next time I paint a landscape.
When we finished our paintings we cleaned our brushes in the brush cleaner (it didn’t smell like turpentine which is what I would have thought you would clean them with) and thankfully there was a tiny sink with one of those tall bar faucets where I could wash my hands, arms and face.
I am not a neat painter, either it seems!
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Tags: Bob Ross, Clouds, Color, Hobby Lobby, Oil painting, Paint, Rococo, Urban Outfitters
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August 24th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Oh, man! You have never heard of the Happy Painter?! He used to have a 30 minute show on TV, I think on Sunday mornings, and it was amazing to watch him. I think you can still find it occasionally as filler on some PBS stations. He died several years ago. Merilyn (Roaul’s wife) did a lot of his classes and got to be very good at it. As a matter of fact, I have one of her paintings hanging in my den. For a first time shot, your lighthouse is very good. Keep it up;I know you have lots of spare time and need another hobby.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I like the rickety lighthouse. Your water and foreground look really good, too!
I remember The Happy Painter that Sis#2 is talking about. He was so fun to watch!
August 24th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
@Sis#2 — no I don’t remember the Happy Painter — guess I was too young or not into painting at that time of my life. I’ve been looking on the internet at his stuff — pretty impressive!
It was really easy and Ken couldn’t believe we did it all in just a few hours!
@Carol — thanks! I like it well enough. There was only one other in the group that I thought was any better. I wish I had had a photograph of a lighthouse in front of me for reference. I just couldn’t remember exactly how the top was supposed to look, but everyone else did a kind of rounded top to theirs. That just didn’t look right to me….
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August 26th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
wow, nice landscape…
i wanna suggest u something..
if u can used some flying birds in sky that feels realistic scene or u can use some people fishing at shore..
it feels aliveness..
August 27th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Thanks, Mad! I did add a couple of birds before the class was over. And then in the middle of the night I thought about adding some sandpipers on the beach, but I had no paint by then, so it’s just in my mind now….
The next painting I do will be better (I hope!) and I will be better about recording the steps to completion.
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