When I introduced myself at the oil painting workshop I went to last weekend I told everyone that I’ve been in and out of art classes my whole life but only drawing and history classes. I cracked that I mostly work in frosting these days. But I’ve never taken a painting class and my only forays into oil painting have been the three Bob Ross days I did with our kids. There’s kind of a long story behind why I found myself looking for art classes (specifically oil painting) but there I was and it turns out Sanford has a club called the Sanford Brush & Palette Club. Once I perused the website and saw the class listings I knew that if I did this workshop I’d probably be the youngest one there by 20 years. (I was mostly right. A girl in her mid-late 20’s showed up about 20 minutes late.)
But while the class was kind of short on actual teaching of theory and technique I had a great time and I did learn some very valuable things. Mostly that there is no black in paintings of nature…only Payne’s Gray.

Oil painting is hard. I realize now just how much Bob Ross designed his paintings and techniques to guarantee a great product for any skill level with a minimal amount of time. This painting was not that. It was a copy of one our teacher did last year and turns out shadows in sand are not super beginner friendly. Also turns out oil painting is hard! I’m currently working on replicating a picture Garyn took of a sunset in Alaska. It’s been humbling to say the least. Naomi said my sky is the pastel version of the original…she really likes it so it’s a compliment. I’m just frustrated my current skill level is not doing the picture justice. Being mostly self taught is frustrating and I know I should just go binge watch YouTube videos. Sigh. I’ll get there. But overall I’m trying to maintain the 10 foot view and cut myself some slack.

The final verdict on oil painting, though, is overwhelmingly positive. I will definitely keep doing this and I’ll keep my eyes open for more workshops that I can go to. Our corner of North Carolina is surprisingly and delightfully artsy. Who knew?