Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins...

This semester's OLLI class was this  week!  I absolutely love guiding seniors along the way to complete a painting. Just look!  They're masterpieces!!! We had such a good time, and each of them should be so proud.

These ladies worked so hard!

We even made the newspaper!!!

When I teach one of these classes, I always create a few models and examples.

As is always true, theirs are priceless.

My examples, however, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

AND...

*** DURING THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER THESE PUMPKINS AND ALL PAINTINGS AUTUMN RELATED WILL BE ON SALE 50% OFF! 

Click HERE to have a look! (Or send me a message. 😀)

Painting Easter Bunnies with Seniors at OLLI

Really?
The newspaper guy was there for an hour. 
He took dozens and dozens of photos.
And... this is the one he chose??? Honestly...
Oh, well, at least I look happy.

What lovely little paintings from these lovely men and women!!

Of course the paintings done by these students are priceless, but you're welcome to purchase one of my examples:

Click Bunny with Tulips or Bunny with Easter Eggs.

Christmas Tree Surprise

This was my example for the class of seniors I taught.

Just look at how beautiful all of theirs turned out!

Such a lovely bunch of ladies!!!

I find that students in their 70s and 80s just aren't that different from the 9 and10 year old kids I taught for a few decades. Both are kind of nervous with something new. They both want the teacher's approval and praise. They need to see an example.  And, they both just want the teacher to stop talking so that they can dive in to the project!

What fun!

Original Acrylic Painting on 16"x 20" Wrapped Canvas
Click Christmas Tree Surprise if you'd like to purchase it for yourself. Only mine is for sale.  Sorry, theirs are all just too priceless!

Strawberries in a Bowl

I started this painting... hmmm... maybe 2 1/2 years ago. I read about my quilting friends having UFOs (which I think stands for UnFinished Object or something like that... They never really say). They seem to have a lot of them. I'm really not too bad at having unfinished painting projects.  I usually start something and finish it before going on to the next one.

My painting partner Julie and I used this little still life when we taught two beginning oil painting classes.  I think you'll notice a pretty obvious clue as to when this class took place.  (I suppose there's no need to blur out faces when you can't see them anyway!)

When we team-teach, we also team-paint.  One will talk about a step in the process while the other paints it, then we switch.  The other talks about the next step while the first works on the painting. We paint quickly and don't particularly finish anything as the purpose is just to model the process. Anyway, we end up with a couple of unfinished paintings (UFOs, I suppose.)

After the classes, I brought one of them home and put it in the art room intending to go back over the whole thing, spruce it up, finish it. 

But... life... terrible ice storms... grandson born... time in the NICU... kept granddaughters... COVID... dad got COVID... time in hospice...  family in town... life stuff, you know... The little painting got under art room stuff and was forgotten.

The other day I read a meme that said something like this, "Statistics show that people who have messy art spaces and too many art supplies tend to live longer lives than those who point it out."

Anyway, after rediscovering it, I gave it new life. 

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Wrapped Canvas

Click Strawberries in a Bowl if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Summer Landscape with Blue Flowers (Senior Citizen Painting Class)

What a treat to guide these wonderful senior citizens through an oil painting!

This was our 6th time to teach OLLI students.  Click HERE to see the others.

Everyone of them did such a good job with their landscapes!

Yes, it's a lot of work to get prepared for teaching an OLLI class, but it's all worth it when the students come in.  My teaching partner Julie and I couldn't have been prouder!

Favorite moment... One of the participants thought I looked familiar and we discovered why. I had her daughter in my 4th grade class about 30 years ago!!  Of course I remembered her!  She texted her daughter who texted back some specific happy memories she had from that year with me. Oh, happy sigh...

Oil painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

Click Summer Landscape with Blue Flowers if you'd like to purchase my example painting.

Field of Blue Flowers II

My painting partner Julie & I will be teaching a landscape painting class for senior citizens in a couple of months.  It takes a lot of thought and planning, but we have so much fun with it.

Part of the preparation means being really familiar with this painting and very confident with painting it so that it becomes second nature.  We don't want to be figuring out what might work while there are a dozen new painters watching.

That means we'll each paint it again... and again... and again... paint it big... paint it small... paint it on canvas... paint it on canvas board... paint it in stages to use as models... paint it until all the kinks in the process are worked out... We hope!

This one was done last month and was a prize of the hen-coop contest.  

It was on a tiny 5"x 7" canvas.

This one was done a few years ago and is now hanging in its forever home.  

It was on a big 18"x 24" canvas.

 Julie & I first painted it in 2019 during a weekend at 

Welcome Home Retreat. (Click HERE to see photos and read about that!)

There's a great YouTube lesson that was out teacher for it.

We're hoping for as much success with this class as we've had in the previous sessions.

2019 - Still Life - Apple

2019 - Nature - Bluebird

2020 - Floral - Day Lilly

2021am - Landscape - Autumn

2021pm - Landscape - Autumn

2022am - Still Life - Strawberries

2022pm - Still Life Strawberries

Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

OLLI Art Show

I got to be a part of an art show hosted by OLLI (Osher Lifelife Long Learning Institute) recently.  OLLI is the senior citizen branch of the University of Arkansas. There were 13 artists of different mediums - watercolor, pottery, jewelry, stained glass, printmaking, photography, acrylic, oil.

It was hard to choose just five pieces!  After looking around the house (at all the paintings waiting for their forever homes), I decided I needed to choose some sort of theme. "Red" would be the thing to tie all of them together.

It's always a pleasure to get to share art and to see the art of others.

!*!*!*!* Also... that hair!  Is it really that gray ?*?*?*

All 5 Original Oil Paintings are for sale in my Etsy shop.  Click HERE if you want to look around there or need a painting for yourself.