Other than painting the walls of rooms, I haven’t done any fine art painting in ages, probably decades. Prior to Christmas, at a work party, staff had the opportunity to paint a winter scene on a bottle.
While I’ve been aware of these commercial group painting sessions, I’ve never taken part in any of them. Art classes in high school and college don’t count here because students all work on their own projects. In these group painting sessions, we’re all working on the same project.
In this case, the instructor led us in painting a snowman and pine tree on a clear wine bottle.
Normally, when it comes to art in a group setting, I tend to charge ahead with my ideas, to get down to work and tackle the project with minimal assistance. Because I hadn’t painted in a while, I wanted to follow the instructor’s directions closely to see what we were trying to achieve. That meant taking more time than I would have liked between the different steps, but that gave me a chance to see what others were doing.
Some of my co-workers are artists and they worked more quickly, adjusting the scene to their tastes. One even added a Pokémon to their bottle. (●’◡’●)
Others, like me, were more tentative and waited for the instructor before moving to the next step.
Regardless of our methods, every bottle was a unique expression of the person who painted it, from the face and hat of the snowman to the pine tree and snowflakes.
It was a fascinating experience, but it shouldn’t have been surprising. This is exactly what happened back in elementary school, when everyone was given the same instructions for an art project. We couldn’t have produced an identical result if we’d tried. Each piece was always imprinted with the personality of each kid.
The painting party reminded me of the light touch I have when painting. I’m not an impasto gal. No giant glops of paint for me! I use relatively little paint and gently dab and brush it on.
Here is my result:
