I wish I had a picture of the painting that has made my day so incredibly happy, but let me just tell you about it.

I enrolled in Figure Painting this semester and the first day of class our teacher, Peter, went on and on about how tough the class would be and how you should stay in at your own risk, etc, etc. I took neither of the prerequisites for the class (I’m currently enrolled in one, but never plan on taking the other) so I was pretty nervous right from the start.

Things continued to get scarier as I stayed in the class and saw the work of my fellow classmates – I can honestly say I was the worst in the class. I’m not trying to be humble, people. The worst.

The scariness soon turned into frustration as everyone else was getting better and better and I just seemed to be staying the same (a.k.a. bad). My teacher would point out the same mistakes over and over and for some reason I just couldn’t get it and subsequently incorporate it into my paintings! So frustrating! We would have in-class critiques and I would dread having my paintings looked at, let alone talked about. Then when we’d get to mine no one had anything to say cause they were that bad. Peter tries to say nice things, but there are so few nice things to talk about.

So last week we started working on a new painting – a direct painting. No under-painting, no sketching it out first, just go for it, full color and everything. We had two days to work on it, meaning 6 hours.

Today as I finished it up, the next class was heading in and their teacher, Chris, asked Peter how the paintings ended up. Peter said, “Some good, some not so good. But Merrick’s….hers is really nice.”

It was all I could do to wipe the stupid grin off my face for the next hour.