Finally Painting!

Manda: Today we finally got into the paint studio for the first time. Thank goodness that we turned up the heat before lunch or the paint might've all been frozen. We worked with acrylic and today was just time to play around and figure out what we can do with the different paints, mediums and tools. Justin is already an expert painter as some of you might know but this was my first time painting and Rich did a great job introducing me to the medium. In playing with the paints today I ended up with a pretty neat Hawaiian flower looking thing. So far playing with paint is fun, but i'm still intimidated to tackle a blank canvas. Unfortunately Rich started setting up a still life for us to start on....who knows what he'll find to put on that table. Justin's not worried...he's already sticking dried paint chips on his practice canvas and calling it art. Ahhh...to be free spirited and creative for a whole month!

justin: so the slides in class are great and wonderful and fading and all that fun jazz. We just love razzing Rich about his stories and who knew Mary had a momma named Anna... not me! The majority of the churches we saw in slides were ones he has worked on. He's done amazing work on over 600 churches worldwide. His sense of humor mixed with my daily consumption of caffeine helps the morning move along faster. We've seen everything from huge baptismal fonts with birds and pulleys to glorified birdbath sizes with four feet of oak on all sides. The church murals are a marvel and some of these pulpits are like lookout posts on a boat.

The paint studio was fun. Getting in there with my "paint clothes" on and having it up to my elbows by dinner time. I love paint chips on canvas, so you know me...i borrowed some of Manda's for my first project that looked like a spiritual eagle rising from a mountain face. The others disagree and see smearings, but what do they know...they've never seen spiritual eagles...gosh! Rich is jazzed about setting up the still life for our big paintings. This is so rad!