Beginning Oil Painting Class 1
Today will be my second oil painting class. The class is offered through the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. The class meets in Harvard Square which is convenient.  I am able to drive to Davis Sq, park in Somerville and take the T in 2 stops. It takes less than 10 min to get there from my apartment. The class is at 5:45 on Mondays so getting dinner in between work and class is tricky but I’m doing well with a PB&J on the subway.
You can see my first attempt.  The photo isn’t at quite the same angle as the painting, but you get the idea. Mu black box is a little skewed and the bottle doesn’t have quite the right proportions but overall, I’m pleased with my first attempt.
So far, the class has been quite informative. The class is very structured. We watch her do some painting first and then we begin to work on our own paintings. Last week, we worked only in 2 colors: White and Burnt Sienna. The idea is to begin by looking at just light and dark and we will eventually get into working with color. The still life for last week was a white box, a black box, a white bottle, and two brown paper bags.  This week, we will be working in just white and burnt sienna again but we will hopefully be working on a different still life.  I am very excited!
The teacher is not like any art teacher I’ve ever seen. She isn’t the scarf wearing flighty type. She is sarcastic and perhaps even a little coarse but I like her. She has a very practical approach to painting. No feeling blah blah stuff. Just “This is darker than this, this is bigger than this.â€Â You can visit her website here: http://www.denisemickilowski.com/.
I’m excited to get into color. I ordered 9 of these 4†x 4†canvases from Dick Blick. When I got the order though, they had shipped 9 boxes of 12! So I have over 100 4×4 canvases. I’m planning on going a little crazy on painted Christmas ornaments this year! I’d better start early if I’m going to get those done. I’m thinking paintings of Christmas ornaments could be really neat. That doesn’t sound too hard either but we’ll see how well the class goes! I’d also kind of like to do a set of 9 teacup paintings. I think they would be cool all framed together.
Sarah
sarahmzim
4/4/2011 | 4:18 pm Permalink
Bad news. Class was cancelled for today. 🙁
Sheila
4/9/2011 | 3:18 pm Permalink
I would love a painting of a christmas ornament from diysarah.com