It has been quite a while since I last had a journal message & quite a bit has been going on.

I'm now the President of the Macarthur Art Society after our annual general meeting a few weeks ago.  I'm now awaiting set of aviator glasses, epaulets, riding crop, and strech limmo as per the standard dress of el presidente; wait I'd end up looking like Michael Jackson.  Cancel that order.

The Art Group is now meeting for plein air painting sessions once a month at the local botanical gardens.  So we now meet twice a month, once for painting and once for drawing.  Should really help the skill levels.Yay.

Today we had a portrait work shop with Dave Thomas, an extraordinarily talented painter.  It was great.  The saying "Struggle+effort=reward" couldn't be truer for me.  I was working in acrylics while everyone else was working in oils which made blending almost impossible for me.  After wanting to drop my canvas in the bin, I persisted and achieved a great result.

The amazing part of it was that I ended up using the acrylic as an under painting for my first ever oil painting.  One kind member offered me her brush & used pallet after she had finished.  I have never used oils before today, but will be going out & getting a set ASAP.  I'll post the painting soon, it's still a WIP as the background is incomplete as is the models dress.

During the session I was so flustered that I accidentally drank a cup of watercolour  paint washings instead of a coffee!  I noticed in time that it was a plastic cup & not a coffee cup and spat the water back into the cup!  Lucky it wasn't the turps!!!