Taking Up The Arts

A few weeks ago Carolyn and I were in the Mountain Arts Guild gallery in Prescott. We spoke to three ladies who work there, all of whom paint in watercolors and teach classes.

One, Dixie, was working on a painting which will become the jacket for a book a friend of hers wrote. The book tells the story of several generations of women living in the west. Her painting depicts these women standing in a wheat field. Dixie is marvelously talented.

I told the ladies I had promised myself two things when I retired. First I was going to work on developing some artistic talents since I had never done so in my life. Second, I was going to encourage Carolyn to get back to painting because she has talent for it. A few days later, one of them, Barbara Kimmell-Palmer, called and invited Carolyn and me to her house for a lesson.

Barbara was a gracious host and a wonderful teacher. She guided us through our first watercolor paintings and has encouraged us to continue.

Carolyn painted a child's pair of tennis shoes. They made her think of Benjamin. She did a great job with the shading and painting in negative space.


Here is my picture of Ben. Barbara was very helpful in showing me how to give definition to the hat and jacket.

We framed the pictures and will give them to Ben to hang in his room.