In 2010, I was yearning to make a change. I went to sleep and asked my unconscious self what should I do? One night I awoke with the direction “go paint.”
I had taken an abstract free wheeling watercolor class from a hippie in Los Angeles, more than thirty years ago. Since then I had thought about pursuing it but career demands and a search for a life partner were more important priorities. Living in Virginia, art class opportunities are very limited. In April, 2010 I enrolled in a watercolor class at Lorton Workhouse Arts, a former prison for housing suffragettes and minor criminals. I was surprised that I could paint and my first assignment was to paint by copying a poorly printed xerox of a famous Picasso painting. In my library, I found a photograph of that painting, “La Reve”, “The Dream.”
A few months later, this appeared in an architectural magazine…. a view from Steve Wynn’s Las Vegas home:
A few weeks later, asked to bring in a photo I’ve taken of an animal, here’s the photo and my painting:
I learned how to copy and paint but I realized that I could not express myself if I did not learn to draw. I searched the ‘net and found a workshop connected with the drawing guru, Dr. Betty Edwards. One week with her son, Brian Bromeisler, “draw right”, in a Maryland conference center this January (2011)..
Here’s my self portrait from July, 2010
At the beginning and end of the program my progress continues…wow!
