Freestyle Painting

I’m counting the blessings on times like these. Here’s remembering the feeling of being focused and calm a couple of nights before our government mandated an enhanced community quarantine. Was able to squeeze in some time to finally attend (I was three months late) Maartsy’s Freestyle Painting workshop. I know when I joined their weeknight session in November I promised myself I’d do so once a month…well, I overpromised. So once a quarter it is.

There were three of us in the workshop, and we were asked to choose from a collection of artwork displayed at the studio. I chose one that I resonated with the most – The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.

I was given my acrylic paint in yellow, blue, white, black and brown. Our art teacher, Jay, thought us to mix our colors so we work with just these. I started off drawing my outline using the yellow paint, which was ok because I painted over it when it was time to do the details.

The result? A far cry from the model painting but I’d like to think it’s identifiable. I was happier with the landscape painting (during my first session), but the second workshop was still a good three hours of meditation by art. I’d gladly go back to clear out my headspace and make something worth displaying on our apartment wall.

This one, by the way, is now in front of me hanging on the wall keeping me company as I work from home these days.