Matthai Van Go

This past Tuesday I took my first lesson of the Bob Ross Wet on Wet on Wet oil painting. I have signed up for 6 Classes. The results were less than desirable. There were 6 students (?) in the class. A guy about 25 next to me and 3 little old grey haired Grandmas on the other side and a cute little girl about 12 years old. I think her painting was the best. I have admired this method for many years starting with the TV program of Bill Alexander, the originator of the Wet on Wet method. It consists of painting your canvas entirely with a coat of special primer before you begin painting. This helps with blending and applying paint that would not work well with a dry canvas. He was a pleasant little old short heavy set guy with a thick German accent. He made it look so easy that you were sure you could paint as well as he could. It's not as easy as it looks. There was a guy who studied with him named Bob Ross. He had his own TV show as well. He had a big Bushy red Affro hairdo and Van Dyke beard to match. He too made it look easy. He died at a very young age of cancer but before he left this old world he set up a company that sold artist supplies and trained people to paint with his method all over the world and they in turn have classes to teach others how to paint. The only thing I have against "Teach" is she has a very domineering personality. She stands in front of the tables and shows us how to apply paint in the proper color and stroke. Things went Ok for awhile and then she started making the rounds. She would go to each person's canvas and without asking she would use her brush to make additions or corrections to your painting. Occasionally she would actually shout at one of the little old ladies, especially one who looked shrunken with age and was probably 80-85 years old. I wondered why she didn't tell her to "Take a leap" There were times I felt the painting was coming along pretty well until "Teach" made her rounds. I think I learned something about the technique which will help on future paintings. I have another class this evening and we will be painting on a black canvas. To the left is what I did on week one!