I went to my first art retreat 2 years ago in beautiful Utah given by the lovely Julie Collings and Candice Elton called the The Art Nest. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful a retreat these two ladies offer. If you ever have a chance to go to one of their retreats, grab at it. Anyway, I had been following Kelly Rae Roberts for a while (love her art!) and I wanted to take a class from her. Kelly Rae, and 2 other artists, Jane Wynn (she makes beautiful mixed media jewelry) and Mati was also teaching there. So I took my very first painting class at my very first art retreat from Mati McDonough. I had never put a paint brush to a blank canvas before so it was a little scary for me. But Mati was so gentle to those of us that had never painted before. As a starting point she had us write some special words or our thoughts on the gesso canvas first to help us start forming our ideas of what to paint and so...I had just left my son that had been through a very heartbreaking divorce so needless to say my feelings were very raw and close to the surface and I let them spill out. It was such a good time for me to just be alone and let my heart try to heal too. And so without knowing it my Week 5 painting of GYPO began but it was not completed in that first class. Since then I have revisited this canvas several times, covering the whole thing with a new layer of gesso at one time, except for the tree. The tree seem to be the only thing that would always make it through, maybe it stood as the roots of love that we have as a family. So in our class 4 assignment I picked it up again, this time with more determination. I am happy with it now and I am going to give it to my son. I feel so good that this painting is finished because I feel like it represents a difficult part of life for my son and myself is over also. Thanks for listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment