Years ago when I was in 5th or 6th grade, my parents signed me up for art lessons. I remember taking the class with another friend, the daughter of another family my parents knew. For a few months, once a week I would pack up a little suitcase of paints and brushes, and show up at an art store (I think the main business was framing and selling supplies) and gather with some other kids for the lessons. We would sit around a table with miniature easels, and the owner would pull our in-progress works out of storage and we would continue. We mostly worked with oil paints, so every week we would start by wiping linseed oil across the painting if it dried too much.
Eventually when we finished our paintings we'd take these masterpieces home and start on another. It has been a while but I remember each work was focused on some art technique: black-and-white pencil sketch, some sort of dabbing technique for painting trees and grass, the classic still-life, how to paint the ocean and especially a breaking wave, etc. It was fun, I remember really enjoying it. One thing I always had trouble with was drawing a human figure so all my paintings were still lifes: flower arrangement, trees, and so forth.
Anyway, three of my works are on display in a very exclusive gallery: the guest bedroom at my parent's house. I have a fourth one in Florida. I'm not sure but I believe two more are over at my aunt/grandmother's... I'll check later if I get the chance. If memory serves there should be a picture of a wave crashing over a rock, and maybe even another.
For the first time on display since 1980:
The classic still-life of a flower arrangement.
Another flower arrangement.
This sketch won 2nd place in an art store contest.
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