The Joy of Painting
My son arrived last Friday night from his home north of Dallas with a car load of art supplies and canvasses. He came to take me out for a day of oil painting. This son, Daniel, while having a day job that pays the bills for his family and him, does a lot of painting. He's really an accomplished artist who has sold a number of pieces, quite a few from his website. Now me, even though I don't have Dan's skills, I believe with practice I could be pretty good.One trouble, though, is that I never really worked at it. I had done maybe one canvas in the past fifteen years. As I looked toward retirement three years ago, I planned on painting a lot; howsomeever, I did none at all. Even though I used every coupon Michael's printed for weeks on oils and supplies, I never opened anything. They're still in my garage.
Saturday morning we arrived on the sea wall in Galveston by 10:30 AM. We set up right beside a covered picnic table-- a place we could get out of the bright sun when we needed a break-- and went right to work. Dan had brought six canvasses with him, two 11x14, two 16x20, and two 24x30. We decided to begin small and work up. Dan led the way with me pretty much following the techniques he used and his color choices. Similar but different, sea and sky, beach and jetty began to take form before each of us. We had decided to begin with the small canvasses and work up. For five and a half hours we painted there.
When we decided the small ones were finished, we moved on to the 16x20s. We put in some things that weren't there, like a palm tree. We left out some things hard to paint and shifted some others. On that part of the beach the rental umbrellas were black. Black was very uninspiring so I made mine red, a faded red, while Daniel painted them as bright blue. That palm tree we included in our pictures was actually beside us, up on the sea wall. By four o'clock I was mentally exhausted and totally happy. That was enough. We never started those large canvasses.
I used the word "joy" in the title, not to copy the name of that program once on public TV, but because that's just what I felt. My dictionary defines joy as: "to experience great pleasure or delight." And that I did Saturday. But not all pleasurable things are joy. After experiencing our day painting, I have a few thoughts that go beyond the dictionary's definition. Getting even may be pleasurable but it's not joy. One upping someone or throwing out "zingers" don't bring joy. "Joy riding" may not be either. Joy brings afterward no kind of hangover, no regrets. I believe seeking joy will be one of my goals.
Daniel was stern as he was ready to leave for home early Sunday afternoon. "Make time to paint," he said. "If you don't, it won't get done." Amen. I have at least three year's experience proving that.
posted by Burt @ 5:13 PM
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