Most days in the life of my family are about me seeing or learning something new, but today, it was about Mr. Guy trying something new. It was fun for me to watch him try something he had never done before. He has done lots of lots of things in his life, but he has never painted a picture before.
The Lady likes to do all kinds of creative things. She plays and writes music; she knits; she writes; and of course, she takes pictures. The Mr. Guy hasn’t ever found anything creative that he likes to do. He says that he is not a creative person. The Lady and I have tried to tell him that everybody is a creative person; he just has to find his means of expression. I was surprised when Mr. Guy and The Lady said that we were going to go paint today. Of all the creative things that Mr. Guy might have chosen to explore, painting is not the one that I thought that he would have chosen. What do I know? I’m just a little blue and orange furry monster.
After lunch, off we went to a place called the Bier Garden. Mixing beer and painting didn’t sound like a good thing to me, but again, what do I know? Mr. Guy said that the beer might help to get his creative juices flowing.
A nice girl named Abbi was the teacher for the class. I don’t think she knew what she was getting into having Mr. Guy in her class. She gave Mr. Guy and The Lady some paint and an empty piece of white board.
She said it was called a canvas and was made especially for artists to paint on. Mr. Guy kind of stared at it like he was really scared.
I told him it would be OK. He was a grown up and he could paint a pretty picture if he tried and if he didn’t drink too much beer. (I have never had beer because I am too little, but The Lady says that if you have too much that it can make you feel funny and maybe say or do silly things.)
Before they started, Mr. Guy kept looking at his phone.
I think maybe he was going to call 911 to come rescue him. I did not get to paint a picture. That was OK. I didn’t want to get paint in my fur. But, I did get to do something new today too. The Lady let me use her camera to take pictures of them painting. Unfortunately, I only took pictures of Mr. Guy because without photos, no one would ever believe that he painted.
Finally they got started working on their paintings. Mr. Guy seemed to relax a little. He did a great job painting the background of his picture. Then it came time to paint a background layer of trees. Mr. Guy didn’t like that part too much. He kept saying that what he was painting did not look like trees. The Lady told him that they were not really supposed to look like trees; they were just kind of texture in the background. They would give his painting depth. That was the wrong thing to say because Mr. Guy says that he can’t see depth in pictures. He still had 911 ready to push on his phone, but he didn’t. He kept painting…and drinking his beer.
He finished both. The Lady and I were proud of him for finishing his painting. He didn’t cry or say any bad words. This was thanks to his teacher, Abbi. She did a great job of talking everyone through how to paint a pretty picture. Abbi was kind, cheerful, and patient. She is very good at her job! She is The Paint Bug.
She does classes like the one we went to today at different places, but not in Texas so if Mr. Guy wants to keep painting, he will have to find a new teacher. Abi also paints custom “critter portraits,” paintings of people’s furry monsters pets. Maybe Mr. Guy would like her to paint a picture of me; I am not a pet, but I am a critter. 🙂 You can see all the cool stuff that Abbi does by visiting her website: www.paint-bug.com.
The coolest thing that Abbi did, though, was to have her picture taken with me! I am posting it here, but her friend also took one of us and posted it on her website! That is exciting! Abbi is 9 of 100 in my project
I am happy that we all got to try something new today. I think that I may have played with too many of the buttons on The Lady’s camera. I hope that she will teach me how to take some pretty photos rather than blurry ones. Oh well…
Oh, and one more thing…
My friend Stobbsie from Scotland asked to see a picture of my new T-shirt from the Biltmore; you know, the pink one. Here I am proudly wearing pink!
Thank you, Blueper B, for letting us see your T-shirt! You really look as if you are on holiday wearing it and it suits you very well indeed. It's a very nice pale pink and the writing is a pretty colour too – they make your even more colourful! We enjoyed reading about your Paint Bug day. Grannymac would have been daunted too if faced with a blank canvas! Looking forward to your next post.