Paint and Palate

Hi Friends,

My interview went really well today. I made the principals on my palette panel laugh and felt like I was able to give them a pretty good look at who I am as a teacher and how I teach. I have another interview for a different district tomorrow over the phone. We all know what happened the last time I had a phone interview. I'm very hopeful for another full-time position this coming school year and am getting less anxious and more excited about it as the days go by.

Following my interview today, I went to a Paint & Palate event with one of my teacher friends and fellow classmate in grad school. It was the perfect way to let loose any lingering stress and anxiety from the interview and just relax. I knew it was going to be fun painting and drinking wine, two things I really like, but I had no idea it was going to be THAT fun. I had a marvelous time learning some new painting techniques that I will totally be stealing and using in my classroom!

It's not uncommon for me to meet people who say they don't like art because they're not "good at it". It's even less uncommon for me to come across students who feel like they can't draw or be artists. I'm sure you know people like this as well. Keeping this in mind, the instructor was so positive and warm. The way she made everyone feel comfortable enough to give it their best was really inspiring to see (the wine helped too, I'm sure).

So everyone in the room painted the same picture but you would not believe the range of works that got produced. It was so nifty walking around and taking a look at how everyone else went about painting the same picture. From the colors they chose to the amount of flowers and petals, it was fascinating to see what other people interpreted and created in their works of art.

So the new painting technique that I learned today was using a grid. My friend was telling me she uses it with her students all the time but I'd never done a painting on canvas like this before nor had I ever thought to break a picture down in this manner. However, I loved the way my painting turned out and I think it was a testament to the appropriate scaffolding that the gird method provided me. I snapped some photos of my painting from start to finish giving you an idea of how the project progressed utilizing this method. We used a very simplified version of the gird method dividing our canvas into 4 quadrants. Using these lines as a point of reference, I slowly began to fill in the parts of the flowers.

Amazing isn't it? Nearly 3 hours had passed and I couldn't believe that I was the one responsible for this masterpiece.

My boyfriend is off on a business trip in the UK and I decided to dedicate my first ever canvas painting to him. I texted my mom and she was totally jealous I wasn't gifting it to her. What a great way to spend a Wednesday evening. I'm looking forward to doing more of these in the future!

As always, thanks so much for reading.