Feeling guilty

I just realized that I haven't posted since Tuesday! Sorry about that. My painting class proved to me that I'm no "Grandma Moses! The fellow I was sitting beside appeared to be on a par with me, and we both struggled with supplies and paint. The instructor did a picture to show us how ( we were painting clouds) and then set us loose. She was quite excited about a certain brand of paint, and I had actually bought several colours in that brand, but it turns out that Imissed one word in the title. Instead of Golden Fluid Acrylics, I should have bought Golden Open fluid Acrylics. The difference is in the drying time. My paint was drying faster than I could get it spread. Mess mess, mess! After struggling and getting negative comments from the teacher about both my use of colour and composition, I looked acrosss the room and saw the most interesting, well-done cloud picture!! Then I realized that the woman working on it is a well-known local artist--someone I've known for about 30years. We both taught out of the same building in Transcona when I lived on McMeans. And I'm in the same class as her!?? So now I've convinced myself that I'm not there to produce beautiful paintings, I'm there to learn as much as I can. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Then yesterday, we set out to see if I could buy a big jar of the white Open fluid acrylic paint, as we had been told that if the open acrylic is mixed with regular acrylic the whole mess adopts the characteristics of the open, and everything is mixed with white-right? Well, not only couldn't we find it, the people in the artists' supply store had never heard of it, and it wasn't in any of the literature. So I found a big bottle of "extender" which is supposed to lengthen the drying time in the same way, and I can mix it with any colour I want. I tried a bit yesterday, and it seems to work.

Yesterday, I had a private student who wanted to learn to machine quilt. First time I've done this, and it seemed to work out okay. I didn't give her any notes to take home, and I think I'm going to prepare some handouts, just in case it ever happens again.

No little girls this weekend, so it will be quiet. I'm fighting a cold, so maybe quiet is what I need. I have to go out to Selkirk to pick up the collage that has been on display out there for the past month, and I'm dropping off two quilts for this month's display. Wind and rain are keeping me off my bicycle. Today there was no rain, bright sunlight, and a minus sign in front of the temperature! I guess biking is over for the year.