Painting

I bought a Groupon some months ago for a painting class that I thought looked fun.  Then I sorta forgot about it.  And then I put it off because of all the craziness in November.  But I knew the expiration was for the Groupon was coming up soon, so I signed up for the class and went tonight.  I went by myself but I actually had a really really good time.  It is a class where they give you all of the supplies (paint, brushes, canvas) and take you step by step through a whole painting and you get to walk out with your artwork at the end of the night.  You are basically just copying a painting that someone else has painted and donated, so you know when you sign up what you will be painting.

Our painting was called "Whimsical Tree of Life." Which looks like this:

It sort of looks tribal, or...something.  (Oh, and that tall black thing on the right branch, a bird, not a person, which we all thought for a second.  ha!)

Here is mine:

Blank canvas

 My tree

 This next step was really hard for me.  I really just wanted to develop my tree and leave it as a tree with none of the other stuff.  I am sort of a minimalist that way, but i plugged on, reluctantly.

 Finished!

Not exactly the same as the original, but close and it is uniquely mine, I suppose.  I really had such a good time and it felt so good to start the evening with a blank canvas, feeling totally insecure that I wouldn't be able to make it look good, to a nice finished product.  Awesome!

Also, I won a drawing and got to pick out a painting from the wall of finished paintings.  This is the one i picked (to hang in my bathroom):

I like its straight lines, and sharp contrast of shading, and its minimal-ness.