Not so bad

Yeah, I'm going to rethink the neighborhood area in which to buy a house. Thanks for the good advice! We just had a man die from a beating from two teenaged boys who broke into his house. This wasn't in any of the neighborhoods in which I looked at houses, but safety is one of the first considerations for either renting or owning a place.

My oil painting turned out OK. The class was really fun and totally new to me as I've never done anything like it before. I received a painting kit for Mother's Day, opened it up eagerly, but then stopped and looked at the brushes, the paint tubes and the palate--what do I DO with them? I had no idea, have never taken an art class except for art appreciation in college. I think they should require art in high school, but they didn't, and only the kids who were actually good at art took it at my high school.

The class taught us how to use the brushes, work with the colors and some painting technique. I did a dark picture of a sunset and got too much black in the sky and was trying to fix it--and getting broader stripes of black, when the instructor came by. I begged him to tell me how to fix it, and he told me to stop messing with it, that it would be fine--also that there was no way to fix it! I doubted him that it would be fine, as I hated the black stripes in the sky. But actually it all turned out not so bad. Even my son, who has real artistic talent, thought it was a decent effort.

Some people are just artistic by nature. Deni has some beautiful paintings, Fizzy did a wonderful bag and she and Magpie do some fabulous crafts! My Mom took a commercial artist course and has been talented at art from her childhood. My son gets his art talent (also from an early age, I have some wonderful drawings he did at age three!) from both of his grandmothers, as his Dad's mother made and sold art. I however, like art but except for a brief fame as a good drawer of horses and dogs in grade school have no art talent or ability. I think it would be a fine hobby, though.

So now I need to get a couple of canvas and go to work on painting at home! I really like it, playing with the colors and all. It was both relaxing and creative. I have my first painting hung in the spare bedroom; my Mom's former bedroom and where my computer is now.

I'm blogging this from work. I've been back to commenting from work, as there just isn't enough time to read all the blogs I want at home before work in the morning. But I haven't actually posted from work for a long, long time. It's probably not a good idea, but oh well. Have a great Tuesday!