Finished 2 paintings today - not too big, but still nice

I was surprised after Class today, I finally got 2 paintings finished. They are quarter sheet watercolors, 11x15". I have been working on these a little here, a little there, but finally got them done. I also have another painting that is almost done, probably finish it tomorrow. We'll see. I was hoping to join the Thursday paintout group tomorrow, but I just found out they will be going to Bonnelli park in San Dimas. Unfortunately that is just too far for me to go when I consider my gas budget. Or lack of budget. Now if someone just wanted to buy a painting -- I might be able to swing it. I guess I had better post those pictures.

You can now see some of my work at the Tirage Website

I have been with Tirage for - I don't know - over 10 years, but since I don't always do a whole lot of paintings, they haven't put me on their website with pictures and everything until now. If you go to http://www.tirageart.com/artists/barnes.shtml you can see some of my stuff, plus see more work by all the other great artists who are represented by Tirage, etc.

And if you want to see these and other paintings the old fashioned way - by going to see them eyeball to actual painting, you can visit the gallery which is located at 1 W. California in Pasadena. That is the northwest corner of Fair Oaks and California in a little complex with a bunch of very nice antique stores as well as a very good taco restaurant.

Plan for my Summer Classes beginning in Mid July - sign up before all the spaces are GONE

Well, it will be a few weeks until the Summer classes start up, but it is probably a good thing to sign up now to be sure you can make it and the Watercolor class schedule works with that amazing Summer schedule you have planned. After all, now is usually the time people start planning "What am I going to do this Summer?".

If you have decided that with fuel prices going up you might do fewer things far away from home, maybe it is time you learned something new. After all, the conventional wisdom regarding the aging brain (something I can relate to) is that you need to keep it active. Who says your brain stops growing at adulthood? New research shows our brains need novel things to work on in order to stay healthy and continue to grow into old age. Consider a new watercolor class to be brain food. Start a new you by learning to paint like you always wanted to --- but didn't know how.

My classes are small so I can take beginners to advanced students. And while watercolor is not easy, it is learnable - I teach how to think in watercolor, and how to get the paint to do what you want it to do, not go off and puddle here and there and make you crazy. You may still find that we are crazy in the class, but that is fun crazy, which is totally different.

One of my goals in this class is to teach you to recognize what you did to the paint to make it do that weird thing that you didn't used to understand. I am not saying you will be an instant watercolor genius, but watercolor IS understandable, and I can tell you a secret - it is frequently possible to change or remove watercolor paint - you don't ALWAYS have to live with your mistakes. That is something else I cover in the class.

So come on down and go with the flow - watercolor is about the triumph of the heart and the agony of - of - well there is agony enough to go around - we will try to minimize that even though we can't always make it go away entirely.

My watercolor classes meet at the Coffee Gallery in Altadena, located at 2029 N. Lake Ave. - on the corner of Morada and Lake Ave. Each class session lasts for 8 sessions, and costs $175 for the series. For an additional $20 I will bring paint/paper/brushes so all you have to bring is yourself. I only take 6 students per class so you won't get lost in the shuffle.

The Monday night class begins on July 21st and meets from 7:30PM to 10PM on every Monday evening except we have to skip the first Monday of each month (the room I use has another meeting that meets the first Monday of the Month, and they have been doing this for far longer than my classes have been going on.) That means the Monday night class will meet on: July 21st, 28th, August 11th, 18th, 25th, and September 8th, 15th and 22nd.

The Wednesday afternoon class begins on July 23rd and meets from 1:30 to 4PM every Wednesday afternoon. This means the Wednesday afternoon class will meet on: July 23rd, 30th, August 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th, and September 3rd and 10th.

If you want to see what kind of paintings I do - which of course would give you an idea of where you could be heading - my website is www.barnesroberts.com.