Painting a Pear

July 24, 2022

Painting a Pear

If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. --Vincent Van Gogh

The weather has become very hot here on Vancouver Island over the past week. It is nowhere near the dangerous heat we had last year (thank goodness) but it's still a bit of a shock to the system when you haven't had a gentle lead-in to higher temperatures.

When it gets hot, we have to plan ahead for our outdoor adventures with Mr. Seymour. We tend to either stay with our regular route (but get up earlier in the morning) or retreat to forests or parks to hide under the shade of the canopy. Yesterday, we went into Nanaimo and enjoyed a hike through Bowen Park. It's always fun to see the waterfalls rushing through a park in the centre of a city:

Seymour was so excited that he wouldn't sit still for a photo:

The warm weather also means I tend to hide away in the house during the heat of the day. This suited me well this week because I've been meaning to try out some online painting workshops I purchased online a few months back. I went through a phase a few months ago when I wanted to LEARN ALL THE THINGS and ended up with four painting workshops in my Domestika.org account, as well as a few free workshops I had signed up for in my email. I had only managed to do one so far, so I was determined to sit myself down and actually do one.

Today, I did one of the free workshops on Anna Mason's website. It's her introductory course where you learn how to paint a pear. Why paint a pear? Well, why not? It's a good way to get to know your paints and brushes and to learn some techniques. I also got to try out a new paint set that has been sitting on my desk for the past month or so. It is always exciting to open up new supplies:

Watercolour is always so challenging for me. It requires patience as you build up layer after layer. It usually means long breaks between each wash, but the workshop was well-designed as you worked on different parts of the project while layers were drying:

I always enjoy trying painting or drawing workshops, because it forces me to slow down and look carefully at small details. It also forces me to get up and walk away at times to get a fresh perspective when I become too overwhelmed by the same small details. It's an interesting balance.

I had to go back and re-do and scrub out a few things along the way, but I was very proud of the result in the end. Check out that juicy pear:

Now that I've got that one under my belt, I am very much looking forward to trying out more things in the coming weeks. And in true serendipity, the weather is going to be hot for a while here, so it means I can devote more time to it while I wait for the day to cool.

Meanwhile, I took advantage of the hot weather today to soak and block one half of my current knitting project. I think it might be a touch too long, but we'll see how it looks once I take it off the boards. I think this is probably going to be the back of the tee, and I think I might just knit the front in plain stockinette like I did with a top that I made last year. That SOUNDS like a good plan, but I do remember how boring it was to knit so many tiny stitches in boring stockinette... we'll see how it goes...