The Painting

 

   Ellen has been a friend of mine for several years. She's very artistic and likes to paint. She's come with me a couple of times to visit my parents. When she visits she bring paints, brushes and canvas and helps my Mom to paint a picture. With Ellen's guidance, Mom painted a picture of a poppy that was so good, I had it framed for her.

   While they paint, I'm either baking some cookies or making other food. I would watch them while I was cooking. It looked like Mom was having fun. I asked Ellen if she and I could do that sometime.

   Sometime finally came on Tuesday. Mac, Ellen's husband, and C decided to go to a movie. It was a historical war picture that Ellen was not interested in. I thought this would be a good time for us to paint. I found a picture of some lavender  and pink flowers that I liked and asked her if we could paint them. She found a corner of the picture that she thought would look nice. The first thing I did was paint the canvas dark green so the pale coloured flowers would show yup better. 

  Then she sketched a picture of the flowers with a few leaves around them. She mixed the colours for me and told me where to paint. As we were working, she explained why we were doing things the way we did. She was very encouraging, telling me that I was doing a good job and that she liked what I was doing. It made me feel very confident. 

  One thing that surprised me was how much I enjoyed it. It was rather soothing to put those colours on the canvas and satisfying to see the picture take shape. It actually liked like several flowers with some leaves.  For someone who nearly failed art class as a kid, this was big. No drawing or painting of mine had ever turned out well.

   I lost track of time as I bent over my canvas, carefully painting layers of colours on the flower petals. Ellen patiently mixed colours and directed me. I held the brush in my left hand and was surprised by the fact that my hand wasn't shaking. (I have a slight tremor in both hands.) I put the finishing touches on the last of the leaves and sat back to look at my work. It was pretty good. I was pleased with it. I put my initials on it with some lavender metallic paint. It was just the right touch.

   When C saw it he liked in and wants to hang it somewhere in the house. For now it is behind a book case until we find the right spot for it.

   I hope I get to paint again sometime.....