Every now
and then you get the chance to meet a true Master – someone whose light shines
so radiantly your own can’t help but glow a bit brighter in their presence. I’ve met several in my life, including musicians,
swamis, martial artists, and Olympians.
What I’ve noticed about these men and women is, they may have different
skills, different crafts they excelled at, but there is a similarity in their
nature.
Last
weekend, six friends got together at our cottage to learn how to paint. Sandie had painted forty years ago, Wendy had
tried it for the first time last year, and four of us (including me) had never learned
a thing about painting with acrylics.
It all
started with Wendy who spent a day with our neighbour, Shelley Houghton, last
summer. Shelley is a retired elementary
school teacher and knows how to get kids – and adults – to succeed. When I saw Wendy’s painting on Facebook I
couldn’t believe the declared newbie had accomplished it in a day! At a campfire last fall, a group of us
convinced Shelley to try to work her magic again so we planned a fun ‘girl’s
day’ around it with a pot luck lunch and bubbly and appetizers at the end of
the day to celebrate.
Meanwhile,
Shelley is not only an outstanding teacher, she is also an award winning
painter. She recently won Mississauga’s
Art Battle and is heading to the regional finals. If you haven’t heard of Art Battle, it is one
of those wonderful cultural events that brings patrons up close to watch the
art process unfold. Twelve painters
compete in three twenty-minute rounds and the audience votes for the best in
each round and the best over-all. Yes,
twenty minutes to create a painting means the artists – some professional and
others up-and-coming – have to get to the point quickly - not a lot of time for
small brush details.
Our day
started weeks ago when we submitted photos to Shelley for approval. I sent three: a bunch of wild daisies, a hay
field, and a photo I’d taken of my husband drinking coffee by the lake. To my surprise, the one she thought I’d have
the most success with is the one with a person in it. Yikes!
We all
started off with a solid background - mine was yellow – and then began adding
elements. Mireille was a ‘dabber’,
dotting her canvas with colour for her fall landscape. I was a ‘stroker’,
waving my brush side to side, blending the hues to create sky and water.
We had
lessons on how to use the brushes, like scumbling with and elephant brush to
create misty areas and clouds, and using a fan brush to create textures for pine
branches and bark. I couldn’t get over
the results we were getting. With
Shelley’s easy guidance and firm knowledge, each one of us was producing work
we never knew we were capable of.
And then,
after lunch, I had to paint in my husband from behind as he looked out over the
lake. I would have had a panic attack if I hadn’t come to trust Shelley and her
process. She showed me how to map it out
and suggested I cheat a bit and sketch it on a piece of paper first then use
some tracing paper to get the outline in.
I felt myself wanting to freak out so kept relaxing myself using my
breath and softening my gaze. Dab by dab
the curly hair was done and stroke by stroke the clothes were mostly done. Next was painting a hand holding a coffee mug. Help! She calmly showed me how to imagine it
and gave me a plate of paints with dabs of red, yellow, white, blue and brown
to make the flesh colour. With a few
fixes it was okay – not great, but okay.
Then standing back, something wasn’t quite right. Where was the other hand? In the photo it was out of sight but in the
painting it didn’t look right, so we added a right hand waving. I was gaining
confidence so had a bit more fun playing with it. After ten minutes or so of more
tweaking I was done my masterpiece, and so were most of the others.
The bottles
were uncorked, the ribs heated and it was time to celebrate – celebrate the
works we created, celebrate the feelings of accomplishment, and celebrate the
Master in our midst.
They say you
can tell how great a Master is not by how many students he or she has but by
how many Masters he or she creates. With
easy laughter and firm support, Shelley Houghton is brilliantly leading the way
for many to shine brightly! Thank you Shelley!
