Yesterday I took advantage of one of the free workshops offered at my school this month. Kingston artist Dave Gordon, who has had his works displayed in galleries across Canada, taught the various workshops which included watercolour painting, drawing, and acrylic painting. I took the drawing one last week, which refreshed some of the techniques I remember using in my grade 9 art class (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, the ‘vase’, upside down etc.). The acrylic painting workshop is one that I really looked forward to (I even have a large supply of painting materials at home, just waiting to be used… teacher’s college doesn’t leave much free time though. :P ).
The workshop was an eye opener. Beginning with painting a colour wheel, we then got the opportunity to choose a scenic photograph, project it onto canvas, and then (with the colour-mixing techniques we learned at the beginning of the session), paint our own work of art. The workshop was about 2.5 hours long, so I didn’t get to finish my painting and I was rushing near the end just to get all of the canvas saturated (there still are some missing ‘land masses’ and a water buoy), but now that I have a lot of the basic materials needed (that I purchased from Wallack’s here in town), I’ll be able to finish it up later. :)
From what I can remember, I think this is actually my first painting on a large canvas (that’s why it looks like a 6-year old did it :D ). The one I used yesterday was about 16″ x 20″. I don’t think we did much canvas painting back when I was in high school, and I worked with acrylics on a small canvas on my own (it was a gift for Mommy) years ago. So I can’t wait to tackle more styles and different projects. Practice makes perfect… :P
Senator Barack Obama has just been elected the 44th president of the United States of America. This is definitely history in the making. Wow… what an evening watching the polls, knowing where I was when the first African-American maintained a victory and is now at the helm of the White House. Truly amazing. It’s also great to see so many young people and first-time voters taking an interest in politics and realizing that their vote really counts.
A record number of American voters are expected to cast their votes later today and be a part of what is probably the most historical presidential election in U.S. history. If all goes according to what the pre-election polls say, we may very much see the first African-American President of the United States. Perhaps now we are ready to see that, unlike what the late Tupac Shakur’s 1998-released track entitled “Changes” (ironically) states. There is also a chance that we’ll also see the the oldest person elected to a first term, and the first woman vice president (and perhaps president herself soon if the former doesn’t allow his age to get the best of him).
on August 11, 2016