A Sophie-Grandma Carol Paint Party

Sophie (13-years old) spent the day and night with us on Thursday.  We decided to do some painting.  So we both got online and found a painting that we would try to duplicate. We used acrylic paints since those are so much easier to work with, in my opinion.  I'm still struggling with using oils!

Ron took some photos of us as we were painting:

Here's Sophie's painting.  She had the center yellow for awhile, but she didn't like the way it looked.  The colors are more vibrant in person.  I like the way she gave both the background and the petals of the flower texture with varying shades of color.  And I like the highlight in the center of the flower, too.  She has a good eye for color and detail.  This is not the finished painting, by the way.  She outlined the petals with a dark blue.  I didn't get a photograph of the finished flower before she left, and of course she took the finished painting home with her.

And here's mine.  Making a nest look realistic is hard, and the flowering tree was also difficult.  The bird is a "song thrush."  I basically did the painting and THEN looked up which brown-feathered birds have blue eggs.  Once I found information on the song thrush, I went back and added brown spots to the eggs and brown spots on the bird's breast.  The painting is fairly closely painted from looking at another painting.  Different tree - different bird - but generally the same.  Making a realistic looking nest was my biggest challenge. Painting by looking at another painting, of course, makes me feel that it isn't really "mine."  So I consider this a practice painting. I got the general proportions right, at least.

"Song Thrush Nest" - Acrylic on canvas

So my next project will likely be another bird and nest.  I think I will use a 12x24 canvas turned horizontally.  I will look through photos of birds and nests and their eggs and make the painting look true to whichever bird I choose.  The song thrush in the painting above looks like a real song thrush in only very general terms - the speckled chest and general colors.  So I want to make my next bird and nest painting to be more realistic.  I think I may do a rose-breasted grosbeak, a gold finch, or a black-capped chickadee since we have those come to the bird feeders in our back yard.

Sophie and I had such a good time together - talking and laughing as we painted.  Before the past few months, I never would have imagined that painting would be a fun social activity, but it is!  I have had so much fun with the various "painting parties" I've attended with members of my family.  Sophie and I really did a lot of laughing as we talked about our paintings - and life in general - as we painted.