painting class

Remember seeing this guy on TV back in the 80's ?

It's Bob Ross, the man who could paint a beautiful landscape in a half hour PBS program.

Mr Ross passed away in 1995, but his painting style and methods are still in use.

At our extension office, I had a chance to take a landscape painting class from a "Bob Ross Certified Instructor".

The instructor and her husband set up a table for each of us (8 students) covered with paper. There were different types of brushes, several blobs of oil paint, a stack of folded paper towels, and an easel with a canvas. 

We could paint sitting down or standing up.

After coating the canvas with a thin layer of white paint, you start with the sky and clouds..and for this scene you bring down some blue for a lake.

Next add trees and bushes and add reflections to the lake.

Then you fill in the foreground and add some closer trees. Remember that nice clean sheet of paper that was on the table? Take a look at it now! That's where you mix and blend paint colors.

Everyone did their own interpretation of the same painting. They all turned out good!

Here is my friend Cheryl with her painting...

                       

And you can see a few of the others in this photo. That's the instructors painting up in the front of the room..

Zee masterpiece is complete!  And in only about 3 1/2 hours.  

I sort of wished that I would have made the pinkish tree on the left more open..so the trees behind would show through more. 

It takes about a week for these to dry, so you have to be careful where you put it when you take it home.

It was a fun class and I would enjoy doing it again sometime.