Snow days and flirting with painting

Our snowy backyard, finally!

We have been hoping for snow for a while now, I for one was really excited to see Kakazi’s response to it. And this week we got some proper snow! Every morning I put Kakazi in her little snow suit and head to the garden to explore, she loves it!

Exploring our snowy backyard.

So yesterday started of as one of those really sweet days, as we were waiting for Kakazi’s father to come pick her up, we played in the snow after breakfast and I was feeling really good about such a lovely start to the day.

That didn’t last long, ha ha! As soon as her father arrived, we had one of the biggest blow ups humanly possible, which sadly is not uncommon. The biggest trouble for me with these fights is how long it takes for me to “shake it off”. I was particularly bothered by yesterday’s fight because this time my entire building must have heard the whole thing. I had a lot planned for the day but I just had to go and lie down for a couple of hours (I really mean hours)and just try to breathe.

Luckily, the night before, I had made plans with my friend Lukos, to meet up at about 1pm the next day, and he would show me some basic painting techniques. I’ve been dying to learn how to paint since forever (that, and how to play the piano). Lukos is an amazing painter in my opinion (in a lot of other people’s opinions too I think), I mean look at this piece..

A Lukos Hey original

I was really glad to have a distraction, Lukos made me believe we could beat my “funk” with some therapeutic painting. I only half believed him but I went along to the art store to pick up some basic supplies.

Some basic brushes and colour for my first painting lesson. The Ikea bird tray works really well for holding and mixing paint, and it washes off beautifully.

We got all set up with our tea and coffee and croissants etc, and were ready to start. This whole idea of taking a lesson in painting all came about because I would like to do a painting on my living room wall and I really want to get it right. The theme is buildings and that is Lukos’ speciality so it made sense that he teach me.

It took Lukos all of five minutes to sketch out a really pretty scene to start with.

And the lesson begins with some simple tips on creating light and shadows, basically a few ways to give the painting depth. I was really getting into it!

Inspired by all the pretty rooftops in Prague, this is a city of gorgeous rooftops, let me tell you 😛

Admiring his handiwork.

Ok, done observing, time to give it a go.

Check out that open mouthed concentration! 😀

Left: My incomplete amateur attempt. Right: Lukos’

We had to cut the lesson short so that Kakazi, who was returning from spending time with her father, would not eat up all the paint and make a mess.

For my first attempt, I’m pretty pleased and I intend to keep going. A bonus one in my sketch book to use all that left over paint.

She just had to get in on the action, luckily I also have lots of crayons 🙂

I guess that’s it for now, stay warm (or cool for my friends in warmer places). Until next time!

❤