Let me start of by saying that I’m not an artist. I mean, this should prove my point:

When Jay saw that drawing in my post he asked if I wanted him to draw up a template so that my blanket pictures would actually be rectangular. Where’s the fun in that?

In school my worst subjects were science, art and gym. I drew a tiger lily in art class that ended up looking like a big orange banana peel. I think that I received a B- on that one (not a good grade for me). In fact, even when I paint the walls of a room I end up with more paint on me than on the walls. This was just from painting my bathroom ceiling a few weeks ago:

Perhaps some of the paint was from other paint projects and not just the bathroom ceiling… but you get the point.

So when I saw an ad for a fundraiser to help the cat sanctuary near where I work, I couldn’t help myself. I suck at painting, but my friend Patty is really good at it. I thought it would at least be a fun experience for the two of us, so I purchased tickets to the Cocktails and Colors program.

At Cocktails and Colors they have an instructor who leads you through the process of painting a certain scene, step-by-step. They don’t provide the cocktails, but you are free to bring your own. Patty and I had done a wrapped wire jewelry class at a winery a few years ago and that had been fun, so I thought we could give this a try.

This is the picture that we are supposed to be painting:

Isn’t it pretty?

It was an evening event, and Patty and I came prepared for a good time.

I was happy to see that there was quite a turn-out for this event. There must have been around 40 people in attendance. Mostly women, but we had one guy to our left who was there with his girlfriend. They also had one of the shelter cats there, but I didn’t see her because she spent most of her time huddled in her carrier. Apparently she’s not much of an artist, either.

Patty brought all kinds of snacky treats, and I brought some of the Woodchuck Hard Cider Rose. It tastes a lot like a sweet blush wine. Also, they were in individual bottles and I wouldn’t have to worry about spilling a big bottle of wine. It’s been a while since I’ve had a cocktail of any kind, so I figured that I would be okay sipping on it for two hours. Patty’s husband, Dave, had offered that he would come pick us up if needed, though. Wasn’t that sweet of him?

We had a good time. I tried to do everything that the instructor was telling and showing us to do, but you know how it goes… if it’s your first time doing anything it’s not going to be perfect. I told Patty that I would just be happy if my painting ended up being some kind of a resemblance of what we were supposed to be painting.

If I couldn’t get my sun to look like the instructor’s, or if my break-wall didn’t look like hers, I just laughed it off. I didn’t plan to hang this in a museum or get it framed. It was a memento of a fun evening with my friend in celebration of her birthday. There was a lady near us who did not have the same attitude and ended up leaving because she was unhappy that the instructor wasn’t there guiding her every brush stroke. It’s sad that she couldn’t find an angle of fun at all.

As you can see, Patty and I did okay. Actually, I think that Patty did a really great job.

My reflection on the break-wall sucked. I couldn’t get the paint the right watery consistency. My leaves on the trees are quite anemic. And my sea grass was a bit stunted. I told Patty that was okay. You see, the sea grass had just recently started growing in that area so it’s very immature sea grass. As for the leaves, these trees are infected with that Ash Beetle thing that is boring into the trees and killing them.

On the whole, though, I was happy with my results. After all, you can tell that it’s supposed to be a sunset! I don’t have to call it a piece of abstract art that you must squint at and tilt your head to really pick up the true essence of the painting. Shall we compare?

Gosh, it’s so difficult to tell which is mine and which is the professional’s! It’s a good thing that she signed it in huge letters, otherwise I don’t think I could tell them apart. lol

A lady came walking around to look at everybody’s pictures and when she got to mine she said, “Oh, you have a streak on yours! You can probably get her (the instructor) to help you fix it.” I told the nice lady, “That’s not a streak. That’s a jet making a contrail.”

If you look close, you can see a bit of red at the point of the contrail. That means it’s an Air Canada Rouge plane. I already had anemic trees and stunted grass, I figured that I should add a design detail that both Jay and I could chuckle over. You see, we enjoy sitting on our deck plane-spotting. On good days you can see the purple on the FedEx jets, and the red on the Air Canada Rouge jets. Jay can see other colors on other jets, but my eyes aren’t that good. One of the other ladies had painted a cat silhouette on her picture, so I figured that mine had to have an ode to me and Jay.

Patty and I had a great time. We went there to hang out together and ended up with some fun paintings. It’s definitely something that I would do again.