If This is Friday, it Must be Merlot and a Masterpiece Day

Slept in until 8 am (Friday). Spent some time in my room writing in m journal as I had not written any of my Nashville stay yet. Yikes! Also worked on downloading photos of the Smoky Mountains.

Jane made some fresh coffee, and we shared a cup until little Aaron (age 3 ½) came upstairs. He is such a cutie – and all boy. He called me “Grandma’s little friend” the whole time I was there. Jane went out to

the barn to care for her horses, Aaron watched cartoons, and I caught up on communications (journal and photos and postcards). Jane’s daughter (and Aaron’s Mom) Mary joined us later and the 4 of us went out to the café in Carlock for lunch. It is owned by a Mom & Pop from Macedonia who are fabulous cooks. I had the Reuben and a bowl of wild rice soup, which were both fantastic. We stopped at a small mercantile for fudge – home-made and great! They had praline fudge; Jane & Mary weren’t sure what praline was. So when we got home I gave them some of Aunt Sally’s pecan pralines from New Orleans. I’m not sure they like pralines.

Jane had made reservations for the two of us to do “Merlot and a Masterpiece” in Bloomington that evening, so we headed off to there around 3:30 pm. But first we packed up our wine – can’t do wine and a painting without the wine.

The artist colony that runs this program has a store-front in the historic district. It seems to be a successful business. Our instructor Danny had prepared our stations with blank canvases on easels, paint brushes in cups with water, and plastic plates of 6 different acrylic paint colors. She had a completed painting and one blank canvas up on her riser. They also provided paint shirts or apron. There were two other women in our class – sisters, one of whom was celebrating her birthday. One of the sisters helped us uncork and chill our wine in a bucket of ice (they think of everything). She also showed us where the wine glasses are stored.

Essential supplies now in hand, we were reading to become artistes!!!

First she had us completely fill the canvas with swirls using a very wide, flat brush using only the black, white, yellow and green colors. This was a background and not supposed to actually “be” anything. This is a note for those of you turning your head sideways to see what that background is supposed to be.

Next we painted cascading grapes on the bottom of the canvas – cascading from right to left on the lower portion of the canvas. Jane got creative and made some black grapes that at first looked like olives, but once she figured out highlighting to give perspective, they looked really good.

Then we painted in a wine bottle on the left side center. My bottle was OK, but the red protective cap on top looked like crap until Danny fixed it. The wine glass was next. We all fell down on the white wine glass. My brush strokes were too heavy. The very last step was to take the extremely think brush and write “Wine Time” on the painting and sign it. I wrote “Sunshine Day” on mine. “A day without wine is like a day without sunshine.”

I think our instructor got a kick out of the banter Jane & I were doing. Jane started this “Well, do YOU like it” thing and we kept the riff going. I started a “Well, it’s representational” thing and we also kept that going. The two sisters joined in with the banter. We just had fun in general.

When we were all done, the instructor took several photos of all of us. Upon reaching home, Bryan decided the better part of valor was not commenting on our masterpieces. My painting will never hang on anyone else's wall but mine, but it is way, way better than anything I would ever be able to paint all on my own. So, I am keeping it!

But before we got home, we stopped at Puran East Indian restaurant for dinner. I had the lamb korma, which was excellent. Jane had tandoori chicken, and we split a spinach and chick pea vegetable dish. Mine was excellent, but too much to eat. We took doggie bags home. We were charged up about our art experience.