Paint with Me

​​Meet my teacher, Melanie Sunderland Fullenkamp, owner of Full He’ART Paint and Sip. It’s the second painting I’ve done with her. It’s also the 2nd time I’ve painted since elementary school. That was a long time ago!

​​Beside Melanie, in the next picture is her daughter, Renae. She helps her mom with painting events. She also teaches classes for kids. 

​This event was named Winter Moon, and that’s what I was supposed to paint. Melanie painted all 4 of these canvases. Each one is a tiny bit different. 

Here are the supplies Melanie set up at each painter. A glass of water, a rag, an easel, 3 paint brushes, 3 plastic plates, a quarter, a pencil, and an easel. On the 1st plate I started with white, light blue, and dark blue. A lot of people used purple and pink. They did Melanie’s original picture. I did it in blue.

​Melanie modeled how to paint. I copied her. Light blue in the center. Darker blue around it, and onto the edges of the canvas. I brushed in some white to give it texture and movement. It worked just like Melanie said, even for an amateur like me. I drew in 3 lines for the trees and a triangle for the biggest tree. Sorry, you can’t see them!

Then I painted white down to the bottom and onto the sides. Melanie modeled how to make snow drifts by adding black to her brush. It showed up as gray. To make darker lines, use more black. Whiter, use more white.
​
The hard part, not using too much paint. That makes it look like dirty slush. When in doubt, ask Melanie. I did, and I stopped here. Do you see the dark gray triangle in the middle? That’s the shadow for the biggest tree. 

Remember the 3 lines? Melanie turned them into tree trunks with black and hunter green. I copied her and dotted my way down. I can’t paint a straight line. I’m afraid to make mistakes so I dot my way through.

Then Melanie modeled how to make branches with the same colors. I dotted them in. Next, a little snow. I switched to white, and I dotted that snow in too.

​Now time to add in the biggest tree, same colors, same techniques, except this tree is darker. Melanie said that’s because it’s closer to the front of the picture than the other trees.

I added snow to that big tree using the same technique, but I added more white and more snow than I did to the other trees. That’s because it’s in front again.

I added in the moon by tracing a quarter, then painting it white. I tried adding shadows on the moon, but mine wound up all gray. Too much paint! Melanie saved the moon by suggesting that I make it bigger and paint a white ring around it. It worked! My moon looks like it has a white halo.

The next step was to give that big tree colored lights. I used red, yellow, orange, and green. They looked great. I tried blue and purple, but they were too dark. 

Here’s the final painting! I followed directions and added white to the dried canvas either in lines for snow banks, or in dots for falling snow.

Do I like my work? It depends. If I’m standing close, I see every flaw. Far away it looks better. When I look at Melanie’s, I know mine is different. It’s fuzzier, more impressionistic. Other people in class liked mine, and so did Facebook friends. I’m learning from painting to like myself, Rinda the impressionist. 

​Here’s my next painting with Melanie. My goal: To allow myself to be different. To check when I’m feeling insecure. I’m not a painter so I don’t know when to stop painting or to add one more brush stroke. It’s good to be able to ask a teacher. Here’s to my impression of that cardinal!