First Painting in 15 Years!

Yep, that's right- first painting in almost 15 years. After visiting my old college friends back in October I realized two things, 1. I don't want to be 65 and look back at my life and say, "you had a gift and you wasted it", and 2. I really do have a God given gift. I knew when I helped Brooke do her first painting that it would fire me up- which it did.

So what's it like to paint again? Great! I was very pleased with the result considering what I was wanting to acchomplish.

1- didn't want to do the super detailed stuff. 2- want it to look painted- so I didn't "blend" any paint, all the colors were premixed and laid on wet-on-wet. 3- I painted about half the size of my old paintings.

And I learned that I made several mistakes.

1- I didn't do a super tight detailed drawing. 2- I didn't do a monotone underpainting but a flat wash. 3- I didn't lay in a flat base color.

Those three mistakes cost me. In the past I always did a really tight drawing, and in painting flowers and leaves- you need a tight drawing- plus the underpainting is to help you to see where to apply what colors. In the end I had to go back and outline each leaf and stalk. I also laid in the underpainting to define depth so I would know where each color went.

In the end I realized I can do a much better job- but ironically the frist three steps are identical to doing a high-end detailed painting. The only real difference is how you apply paint and brush sizes.

But the best thing of all was that this painting was done from start to finish in nine days. NINE DAYS! In the past the super detailed version would take months. It's good to be back.

Jake's new room!

For Jake's 3rd birthday we decided that it would be a good idea to fix up his room. He is in bad need of shelving and drawers for all of his stuff- so that's exactly what he got- shelving and drawers. He also got an entertainment center for the TV grandma Lydia (pronounced lie-da) got him (which barely fit). Mommaw Ann paid for the wood and got him the Lighting McQueen comforter and room light. By the way it's all about lighting McQueen right now. The boy loves his cars. Now he has a place to put all of his stuff- which makes mommy happy.

For his birthday he also gets to open all of the Christmas presents we put back and didn't let him open Christmas day (I put back a couple he did open too). It's a good thing he can't read or he'd be upset to know that. I figue that by the time he can read this it wont matter anymore.

Build-a-Bear day

Saturday we surprised the kids by taking them to Winston-Salem to the Build-a-Bear workshop. I did it to reward Brooke on how well she did on her yearly homeshool exams, and for Jake whose birthday is next month, and to see some old friends that I know who live outside of Winston-Salem, Gary and Cindy Montgomery.

Everything went great- was very good to see Gary and Cindy again and their kids,

Brooke enjoyed building her own Bear, and Jake just ran around all over the place.

At first he didn't want to have his bear stuffed, but he did put green underwear on his bear.

You may not know it- but it is very difficult to get a photo of Jake, I mean to get a good photo. He wont pose for the camera anymore. It's all a game to him. By the time we left he was a mess and he was out before we left the parking lot.

Jake's first snow day

Wow- what a morning. After the sleet went away it began to snow the biggest snow flakes I've ever scene in my entire life! Snoweflakes the size of quarters! (see flakes laying on the wood of the top photo). This was Jakes first big snow and he proceeded to knock down Breigh and Brooke's snowman- thats right, didn't help to build it, but was jake-on-the-spot to knock it over.

At the bottom is an old photo of Brooke's first snow man.

Linville Falls

Back in the fall we hiked up to Linville Falls to admire the fall colors. For some reason Jake had to take a small broom and he swept leaves off of the trial. Brooke did most of the filming with our dvd camera and Nancy and I tried to make sure Jake didn't fall off of a cliff or go over a waterfall- which he would have tried.

Brooke's first painting

This Christmas I helped my daughter Brooke paint her first ever painting. I did the underpainting and mixed the paint. It was very gratifying to see her paint for the first time ever, then it was hard to let her make mistakes and not want to paint it myself. Patience. I forget she is ten years old.

The painting was a gift to my brother Jimmy and his wife Lori who love lighthouses. Their reaction to the painting far exceeded my expectations. Hopefully Brooke will want to continue to paint.

fishing on armstrong

On my birthday (Jan. 9) my cousin Wayne and I went fishing on the Armstrong River. Usually this river is fished out by late summer, but there is a private fishing club upriver of the hatchery supported waters- and occasionaly some big trout will wash down after a huge rain. Two days earlier we had a huge rainfall, (plus we have had a lot of heavy rain for the past two months) so we went out about 2:30 that evening. It was very cold and snowed on-and-off the whole thime we were fishing. We both caught 20" rainbows that day as well as a 16" and a 12". Not bad.

sunset

Jake...don't stare at the sun....JAKE...don't stare at the sun....JAKE... don't stare at the sun!

At the beach

Monday we left Brian and Amy's and headed to Sarasota. We had a great time and the weather was perfect. Brooke sculpted a seat in the sand, and Jake spent his time destroying every sandcastle I tried to make. Nancy sat there and looked pretty.

Playing at Brian's

We spent the weekend in Florida and Jake got to play with Brian's boys for the first time.