Impressions of Impressionism

(Best accompanied by Don McLean, as per usual)

Today comes to you in the form of another photo dump.  And, like so many of my adventures, our tale begins with my sister.

Some time ago, C asked me if I wanted to take an art class with her.  Evidently, two of her friends from business school own an art studio in Hoboken that does recreational workshops.  It sounded like fun, so I said yes, of course.  A few weeks ago, she sent me the website with all the specific pieces they taught audiences to draw and said she'd take me for my birthday.  After browsing through the available classes, I settled on Van Gogh's Almond Blossoms:

Image via Wikipedia

Technically post-impression.  Details, details.  (No, seriously.  There is a lot of detail in this painting)

Today's class was at the little studio, ArteVino:

Check it out if you are ever in the area.  It's a bit small, but it's a fun time.

I am not a painter by trade.  I took one art class in all of high school, and it was a sculpting class that I got an A- in, so not only did I not know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting much of myself, either.  Fortunately, when I sat down to the easel, this is what I saw:

C and I both snorted.  Over lunch, we had joked about the "class" being a paint-by-numbers session, and this only seemed to confirm our suspicions.  Not so, though.  The sketch was done on tissue paper over carbon paper over a canvas.  Our first order of business was to trace the outline of the picture onto the canvas.  While some people might balk, I was a bit relieved - I am no free-hander, so this took some pressure off.

C getting down to business

Except, halfway in, I realized that I had failed tracing practice in kindergarten, so I had no hope of it not being any less disastrous now.

It didn't get much better.  The instructor then had us paint the background.  Like I mentioned before, I have no idea how to paint, so I pretty much just smeared blue-green wateriness across the canvas like a dope:

Slowly, though, things started to come together.  The instructor was pretty encouraging and kept telling us to take a step back and view the painting from a distance - as impressionist work is supposed to be viewed (or so my elementary school art teacher told us).  He also said not to worry about completely copying the original - he wanted us to make it our own, so-to-speak.

C was, of course, a total perfectionist about it.  Unlike me - she has actually taken art classes:

The artist hard at work

Before we knew it, though, our time was up.  3 hours sounds long, but in the scheme of things, it was pretty darn short for a paining class.  My final piece:

looked TOOOOOOTALLY like the original:

L-R:  Mine, instructor original, C's

The accomplished artists

What a royal mess!  But, I have to admit, I don't hate the final outcome.  Yeah, it's rough around the edges, but all in all, I had fun in the process.  Painting my not be my strong suit, but it's something that I'd consider taking up for fun in the future.  And you know what - masterpiece or not, that sucker is getting hung above my shelves.

Until the next.