My Newest Needlepoint Adventure

My newest needlework adventure isn't a real needlework adventure at all.

My friend Natalie told me that my life is too narrow, that I work and I go to computer classes, and that's about it.
She said I needed a hobby, something that broadened my horizons and got me away from (1) work and (2) MacSoph.
(This is a false dichotomy since work and MacSoph these days are inextricably linked)

On my way home from the Village where I live, I drive by a small shop /artist's studio and one day I stopped by.
To make a long story short, I signed up for a painting class.

Now I haven't painted on anything other than needlepoint canvas for at least 45 years and I remember squat about painting. I mean, in school I took 5 years of Latin (a fetish of my father's) and all I remember now is 'arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris'. Anybody remember this, the first line from the Aeneid? Now why I would remember that one thing after all these years is one of my life's great mysteries.

I remembered snippets of painting also, but not much. Not much more than the painting equivalent of a single line from the Aeneid.

Remember, I decided to do this as recreation, not as a part of work. Well, I lasted less than 2 hours into the first class before I had an idea how to incorporate it into work (aka needlepoint), and I have been painting up a storm ever since.

My teacher is a very sweet very young woman who has a great artistic way of seeing the world, ie she is open to almost anything. Together we are concocting a sunset and it is quite an adventure. I love the idea! I don't know that I love painting: after my first 2 hours I came home with paint from one end of me to the other, and all over everything surrounding me.

I just went to my 6th class and I've made progress. I am back to painting on needlepoint canvas after a beginning on canvas and a segue onto paper, and it is great fun, indeed a bit of a wild adventure for me.

But after 6 lessons, I still have paint from one end of me to the other.

Does anybody know how to paint and keep the paint only on the painting? Or is that one of life's mysteries also?

Gay Ann