Happy Palm Sunday today! I hope you had the opportunity to think about, learn about, and worship our Savior Jesus Christ, whether in Church or in your individual lives. We had a fantastic Church service filled with beautiful music, wonderful talks, and the beautiful feelings of the Spirit.

Easter is an almost forgotten holiday, or at least the real reason we celebrate, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement for us. I am grateful for Him, for the opportunity to repent, to change, to do better, and become more like Him.

This week spring has really felt springy here in Alaska. The snow is still here, but the temperatures have been above freezing every single day, some days up into the low 50’s for a short time. My greenhouse still cools off to whatever the outside temperatures are at night, but it warms up into the 60’s during the day. My husband is about done with the woodstove and I am super excited about that.

Every spring I get the urge to paint flowers, I want something more colorful and vibrant than the gray’s and whites of winter. A few months ago as I was scheduling our little library community room for a 6-week art workshop, I decided to also schedule a more focused floral painting class. It was this past Friday and Saturday and was so much fun!

There were 4 students scheduled, but one got sick the morning of and couldn’t make it. So I had 3 fantastic, ready to learn students and it was so much fun! Interestingly, there was only 1 from my little community of Willow. One was from the little community south – Houston, and one drove all the way from Palmer, about 50 miles away, to attend our class.

We started on Friday night for a couple of hours of specific techniques that I use in floral paintings. We practiced mixing colors, discussed pedal shapes and shading, and then painted a few pedals for practice.

Saturday was all about the bigger picture, the finished painting. I try to manage expectations for my students, they are not leaving with a masterpiece, but neither am I. We are practicing, learning, and growing, and we’re all at different levels, so don’t compare. They each took that in stride and while some parts of their paintings they really didn’t like, every one of them had something they really did like about their paintings.

We painted poppy’s, for our final piece using a composition that I created from several reference photos. Poppy’s are a fun subject for flowers. They don’t have a ton of pedals, there’s not a lot of veining that stands out, and they come in so many colors, so any favorite color will do. We painted ours blue, pink, and peach, with one purple one thrown in as well.

This was a fun class, and I am already planning my next mini workshop – Birds – for July. If you’re local, stay tuned for dates and more information!

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