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I have been painting now for about five months, and I love it. I have been taking classes weekly from a local painter here. There are about 5-6 students in class each week, and we paint in a tiny studio for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours each Wednesday morning.
Our class is very informal, with students picking their subject as they please and working with as much direction as they care to take each week. My instructor is Korean, but has considerable English vocabulary. There are also two bi-lingual students in the class who help with the communications barrier.
My first painting is posted here on the blog corner, but, I don't think of it as finished. There are some things that I want to do with it that I simply haven't learned how to do yet. I'm sure that I will revisit it sometime in the future before I leave Korea. It is a famous Korean landscape from Cheju Island.
I am working now on my third painting -- you can see the work in progress here. The picture is Kimchee pots on a rooftop, which is a common sight in some areas of Korea. (As you would imagine, in urban Korea you are more likely to by your Kimchee in the supermarket.) The painting is coming along well, although slowly. I don't know how Bob Ross can do a painting in 45 minutes. Truly, it is a slow-go process for me. This is easily 8 hours of work already invested in this one.
I wrestle with how to photograph my paintings - natural light doesn't show the detail, yet flash makes the colors fade or stand out in a way that they shouldn't.
But, as frustrating as it can be sometimes, I love it. It is great to have a creative outlet in your life. Although, once you have that outlet, you crave it and recognize that the time that you are giving it is not enough. I think it's just another indicator of how out of balance our lives are today.
2 comments:
I don't know you, but I stumbled on your site and wanted to say congrats on taking up painting. I always described myself as someone whose "stick figures don't look like stick figure" -- in other words, no art skills. But I took a couple oil painting classes in college and then a few years later from a community school and I loved it. It was something I did just for me, even though I wasn't naturally good at it. You, on the other hand, look like a natural. Hope you keep having fun at it! Cheers from Chicago! :)
Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your comments. I never would have started painting without my Mom's encouragement and the chance introduction at a party to my current art teacher. And yet, I haven't had this much fun since high school.
I'm sure Picasso's stick figures were unique, too. I hope you are able to continue, if only for a diversion.
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