My first day of formal art classes was quite fun. As I walked to class, I asked myself, "What am I doing? I'm the age of these students' parents," but I kept walking. When I finally arrived in the classroom, I realized I am the median age. Seven women appear to be older than me, several students are in the college level, and three are high school seniors.
Class started out with a bar of ginger-chocolate. The second half began with a bar of orange-chocolate.
The first half of class was instructive as we saw various prints on a slideshow that revealed different aspects of drawing. I enjoyed it a great deal as I was able to see what the instructor pointed out.
The second half of class was to do live drawing, which is sketching a model who strikes different poses. We began the session by doing six 2-minute drawings, followed by five 5-minute poses, then several 10-minute poses, and ending with one 150 minute pose. This was the first time I ever used a live model. The professor was impressed and encouraged by my first-time efforts.
A nearby student, who has been painting for most of his 22-years of life, was very accomplished in his style. It was great to see how quickly he could set and form and image and then fill in the nuances in short order. I enjoyed seeing the techniques the other students used.
At the end of the day, I feel encouraged and grateful.
I came home and ate a pumpkin cookie. Tis the season. It matched my pumpkin latte the other day.
Last night I attended choral rehearsal for an Advent concert. It was so good to sing again. The downside is that I have to drive an hour to get there. Boo. Drawing comes easier, but singing likewise cleanses the mind of all distractions. These things just make me happy.
Yoga class stretched me today. I loved it. I cannot believe the difficulty my body has in making certain poses. I don't know if I will ever master an Eagle pose. I can't seem to wrap my ankles around the back of my leg while contorting my arms in the opposite way. I do my best, but it must be quite a sight.
Today's limber instructor had us do an abdominal routine. He took off his shirt so we could see how it is rightly to be done. For a guy in his 60's, he has a six-pack abdomen. He inhaled it so deeply that his skin must have sunk six inches. Then he rolled the muscles down systematically in succession. I've never seen anyone in control of his abdomen so skillfully. Fortunately, he did not laugh as we tried it and struggled. The nice part is that this is the first time I've ever seen anyone show us abdominal exercises. Wow. I'm impressed. The yoga exercise is called Enya Crea (Fire in the Trash) and it is designed to cleanse the intestinal tracts.
All in all, I've had an uplifting twenty-four hours.
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