Palette Knife Painting Lesson ( needs review for spelling and mistakes.)

 I always sign up for a class or a tour of some kind when I can...I like "Get Your Guide" as they have some different things and they are longer experiences. I also like Context Travel for Art and History related tours, but I found a painting class and I was all about that. It turned out it was a one on one lesson, which was great! It was at a small art studio on the other side of the Arno River. The class was held in a small room at the top of the studio, the teacher set up a simple still life, a pear on a white block. I had to sketch the scene  on a canvas board and then paint. For the life of me, I couldn't get it right. I was getting very frustrated. I never draw, I had to at University in art classes, nudes and still life, but I am rusty and I have never been good at drawing. 

So, I said, ok, enough, let's get to the painting.

She has laid out many different palette knives and a board with different clumps of paint to cover all the of colors needed to mix every color I would need.

So she instructed me and I began. It was very frustrating...I could not get it right, or right to my head. We were sitting at a small table, she to my left, close, watching, cleaning knives, adding paint if needed...Eventually, I said..I have to do something different...I spun the little canvas around. I was about 10" x 10" and started to look for what I could see in it...We both realized that I was noy looking at the pear...but I was in my head...working it, spinning it, adding thick paint and came up with this as I had over thought and over did. I hate it.

I brought a small Chrysanthemum plant . The flowers were red and the wrapping was also red. I thought it would make a nice subject. She seemed not sure.

I was sent out with the woman at the desk to get a cappucino at a cafe around th corner...good lord I could not get a word in edgewise with her...I just gave up...She just kept yacking.  I do not suffer fools gladly...not that she was a fool but she was silly...it was probably nerves.

The teacher was a young Ukranian woman...black hair, a smoker, ...stand offish, but she warmed up to me right away, I liked her a lot. I asked hr about Ukraine, the language, the war...I told her that I could not imagine what it must be like for her to visiat home ( she has lived in Florence for 7 years, center of art for many)...she said It's best not to imagine...I sked her questions very lightly as I destroyed 2 canvases...I think she knew I was just curious and was very nice.

so we went back and the teacher had set up a still life with the chrysanthemums and 3 pomegrantes plus a bright blue cloth. Oh hell...again I tried to draw and then paint and then the moment came when I said...hold on..things are gonna change. The teacher went along with it and kept mixing paint for me so I could find something within the mess I made. I worked it, worked it, she urged me on, 45 minutes later, I came up with this...

I am happier with this one. It will take about 10 days to dry and they will send to me....but I learned some things...see next post.