Adventures of a Desperate Painter

As many of you may now I am back to school, back to school to prove to Grandma Shepard that I am no fool. (Steph I am referring to grandma at Carmelle) And while this has been an awesome experience for me it also adds a little bit more stress in my life and quite a bit more adventure. I am also happier when I feel like I am using my creative talents.

Lets start from the beginning...

I had a painting due Tuesday right after spring break and because of the work load of this class I was unable to start it until spring break started this week. So I have set a goal for myself to paint every night so I don't have to bare through a 24 paint session Monday night. Tuesday night I started the painting on a piece of Masonite board left over from days past. It was primed and ready to go. It seemed the right size and so I took some scrap (artist term for reference material) and started painting. I was having a lot of trouble getting going. Somedays you just have an off day so I shrugged is off after a few hours and went to bed. The next day I got home from work and between a full day of work and a late session the night before I fell asleep on our couch so I did not work at all. That night I laid in bed and asked for help from Lena and Heavenly Father to give me strength to get some done. At this point I needed all the help I could get. Lena later commented that she prayed for the same thing. Funny how that works out. Let me continue before this gets to spiritual.

So I started painting, painting and painting some more, the more I painted the more I got angry. The paint would slide of the canvas, or board in the case. I would lay down a layer of paint put a little water on and it would slide right off with the water. So my only conclusion is that this board must have been primed with OIL base gesso. Think of putting oil in a glass of water...they do not mix.

So I tossed the painting across the room jumped in my car and went to Micheals to spend way more than I wanted to on a pre-built, pre-gesso'd canvas.

To make this long story shorter. I got 3 times the work done in the time it took to paint the previous painting. It looks really good as well I am happy with how it turned out.



I just had it framed and put it in the student show of at Redwood High. Maybe someday I will get around to posting the painting here.