CELEBRATING MY SON

HAPPY 27TH ZACH!!

What a fun time we had for my son's 27th birthday this year.

He wanted to do the wine and paint thing with all of us.

So we found one close to our home in Anaheim Hills called "Painting your Way".

With wine by our side,

and 2 hours of painting instruction,

we all completed a piece.

Instructor Maria was wonderful and very patient 

as we all got our ocean going on.

I was super surprised by how comfortable my husband Jim was with the whole process,

even holding his brush like you'd see artists doing in the movies  LOL

He was sitting across from me so I had no idea how he was faring.

I was next to my ex who was able to keep up with the instructor

while the rest of us were a little farther behind.

So here are the finished pieces,

and even though the subject matter was exactly the same,

the results were all so very different.

This first one belongs to me.

I was actually pretty surprised in myself

since I haven't painted an entire piece in acrylic since my college years 40 years ago.

This next one was done by my daughter Danielle.

She really didn't enjoy the process until the very end when it came all together.

Her daddy has it hanging proudly in his home  :)

I like how she brought in the little white dots at the end,

it feels like buds getting ready to bloom,

or perhaps tiny pussywillows in the foregrund.

This next one belongs to my ex, 

Inars.

This was his very first time to paint a picture in his entire life.

I was really excited to see how well he did.

And this next one was made by my son's best friend,

 Sean,

who joined us that day.

Sean is known for not following instructions and bulking the system a bit.

So it was fun to see the liberties he took with the subject.

This one was my son Zach's piece.

I think this was the third time he's done this process,

and he was so happy we could all join him on this 4th go-round.

But it was this one,

done by my husband Jim,

that I was the most impressed with.

This was also Jim's first time to ever paint a picture,

and it feels very impressionistic to me.

It's loose and flows so well,

yet feels very balanced.

I think that of all of us,

Jim was the most relaxed as he went though this process,

and it is really reflected in his style.

At the time I was photographing all of the finished pieces,

Zach's girlfriend Nicole was still painting away 

so I didn't get to take a pix of hers until everybody did the group pose.

But if you look closely on the left

you can see that Nicole's piece felt really dimensional.

She curved the foreground which makes it felt close, 

and the ocean very far away.

She also put the most value ranges into her ocean

which is another reason her piece has so much depth.

Jim left early to hold our restaurant reservation 

so he didn't make the group shout.

We had the most scrumptious dinner at the Medici Cafe in Anaheim Hills,

and then dessert and presents at Inars house.

Happy 27th Zach,

and many more.

You are so loved and we are so very proud of the young man you've become.