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Happy New Year! I hope everyone has exciting adventures in store for 2016. I do! I have embarked on a new adventure – painting!

I am a self-taught artist that came to art as a quilter back in the ’90’s at a time when quilting was experiencing a renaissance and quilts were being made for the wall instead of the bed. Quilters began pushing the envelope on materials and techniques while trained artists from other media discovered quilting as a an exciting new medium to explore as a platform for artistic expression. With such a convergence of skills and talent, the current field of quilt art is now inhabited with amazingly gifted artists of diverse backgrounds and skill sets which has inspired me to push my own skill sets and expand my basic knowledge of art.

Soooo…, I am taking a painting class at the Hunterdon Art Museum with the extraordinarily talented Maureen Chatfield who is well-known for her abstracts but has extensive experience in all styles of painting. Since my own work focuses on landscapes, both impressionistic and abstracted, Maureen’s class Painting the Modern Landscape seemed a great fit. I hope to take what I learn in this class and apply it to my current work with textiles.

The class is filled with students from all artistic backgrounds. Some have studied with Maureen many times, others who have always been painting throughout their lives, are taking a class with Maureen for the first time, and those who, like me, are newcomers to painting. I’ve never taken a painting class in my life. I know nothing other than what I have observed on canvases I have admired in galleries, museums, in books and on line. In preparing for this class, I watched a bit of painting tutorials just to familiarize myself with the tools, materials and terminology.

Because of my virgin status, Maureen had me start with a simple piece of fruit using acrylic. I found a few photos on line of pears and picked one to use, Two Pears by photographer Lupen Grainne. I liked the simple shapes, colors and textures.

Class began and the other students, some who had brought in works in progress, began to dive in. I stood there not knowing where to start and, after some guidance and gentle prodding from Maureen, I proceeded to work, tentatively at first but then I dove in head first into my painting. And, this is the result.

This is just the under-painting, or so I’m told. They look a little funny without their stems, can’t wait to add them. I was just getting the hang of mixing colors and layering while working on the aqua/green foreground when the class started to wrap up and I quickly mixed and through on the pink background. That’s when I discovered the faster you work, the better.

I invite you come along on this adventure into painting and see where it takes me and how it influences my work with textiles. One thing I’ve learned about myself already, when you’re self-taught, sometimes you don’t really know what you know and what you don’t know. Some days I feel there are boat loads I need to learn, but I realize now, maybe I know more than I thought I did and that feels good.