AJ and I were kidless this Christmas. Sometime between realising we can have sushi for dinner and the little pang that we weren't going to see the cherubs on the day, we looked at each other. "So, what are we going to do?"
Fortunately, I had an answer. I've been binging Bob Ross on Netflix and decided I wanted to paint. With oils. For the first time ever. Happily for me, my wife's the indulgent type.
Two days before Christmas we went to the local art supply store, and spent more than we intended on brushes, canvases, paint thinner, linseed oil, palette knives, and more. We didn't even wait the two days to break out the first canvas and try our first painting — Sunset Aglow. For the uninitiated, here's what it's supposed to look like.
Our attempts weren't perfect, and there was a lot of shouting at old Bob when he went zooming off and created something that looked effortlessly good, but for the most part we kept up.
-
- This isn’t how his looked…
-
- I did better when I was three.
-
- Not what blending is supposed to look like.
-
- Happy little clouds!
-
- Ooh, I see a sunset!
-
- Mountains FTW!
-
- Snoooooooow.
-
- HAPPY TREES!
-
- Huh. That’s… not bad.
-
- Y’all, I don’t hate it.
Ta-daaaaaa!
We learnt pretty quickly about some of our mistakes. Less is definitely more when it comes to the first wash of paint on the canvas (hence my smeared sky). Also, thin paint sticks to thicker paint!
Here's AJ's attempt at the same picture. I covet her mountains.
Stay tuned because now we've been bitten by the Bob Ross bug, there are many more paintings in our future.
