Taking painting classes with my son

Lavender field at sunset.

Gavin sharing his lavender field painting at the end of class.

I’m very fortunate to have an amazingly talented couple of kids. I know all parents say that, so I hope you will forgive me for doing the same.

Recently, I have had the pleasure of taking a couple of acrylic painting classes with Janene Grende. My oldest son joined me and it was so much fun sharing that experience with him.

What I’m loving about learning from Janene, besides the joy of having my son with me, is how she blends her colors on her pallet and how to create a painting that is suggestive when viewed up close and feels very developed when seen from far away.

Its also great practice in making art that doesn’t need to be perfect or even something you consider finished. You can paint right on over these if you like because you are practicing technique and there are no expectations of perfection.

All of the paintings created in the class today were wonderful. Each artis has a different take on composistion, light and texture. We all started with a toned background which was either orange (my son and I chose this) or black.

Below are our paintings from the first class. I really love Gavin’s (left) for the looseness of his brush work and the activity of his water. He also did a great job of leaving that black gesso showing.

Thanks for allowing this proud momma a little brag session on her son!

Paintings from our first lesson. We started with a black canvas and were supposed to let the black show through. Gavin’s painting (left) is much more successful at this than mine (right).