Swimming - March 15, 2014

Saturday - March 15, 2014
I started this oil painting when I was in an art class my senior year of high school.  I got really frustrated because I couldn't get the grass to look how I wanted it to look.  So, I set the picture aside, so I would have time to think about it and figure it out.  A year after high school, I did some oil painting with a friend from the neighborhood.  I learned a few different techniques for doing grass and I tried those out.  I really wasn't satisfied with the way the grass techniques were working, so I set the picture aside again.  I took a stab at the grass one more time, when I took an oil painting class from Dell Parson at Dixie College.  I loved that class and I learned a lot, but I still wasn't satisfied with the look of the grass.  I was getting so frustrated, because I had a vision of how I wanted this picture to look, but nothing I tried would give the grass the look I wanted.  so, I put the picture away again.  Ten years after I had started this picture, I was doing some cleaning and came across this picture.  I really wanted to finish it, but I still wasn't sure how.
A day or so after I found the picture again, the kids wanted to do some crafts.  We pulled out all of our craft supplies.  In our stuff, we had these oil writer things.  they were the size of chalk and in a small container with lots of different colors.  It was a different way to oil paint.  It was more like oil coloring.  I pulled those out and started doodling on a small canvas I had and I finally came up with a way to make grass on my oil painting.  I was so happy to finally be able to finish my oil painting!  This grass turned out better than anything else I had tried.  I don't think I'm super talented when it comes to oil painting, but it didn't turn out too bad.  Since it was finally finished, I gave it to my parents as a gift.  I think that had been my original intent when I started the picture 10 years ago.  I can't remember too well, but it just felt like it was meant for them.  I had forgotten again about that painting, so I took a picture of it when I saw it hanging on the wall at my parent's house.

 We were still tired from all of our driving that we had done the previous day.  We spent the morning just sitting around relaxing and watching tv.  Then dad told us about this nice new recreation center in Washington, UT, so we headed over to check it out.  Dad had a pass that made it so he could get in for free whenever he wants.  It wasn't too expensive for all of us to swim, though, so that was okay.  The swimming pool was a lot of fun.  The kids loved it.  I'm sure we will go swimming here almost every time we visit.  The lazy river was unlike any other lazy river I've been to.  The water takes you around really fast.  It was the fastest lazy river I've been in and I loved it.  Brinley loved it too.  that's all she wanted to do.  there was a fun water slide.  Alissa and Parker had a lot of fun going on that.  It seemed all Alissa wanted to do was go down the slide and all Brinley wanted to do was go around the lazy river and Parker wasn't sure what sister to follow.  so, he'd go with Alissa for a while, then he'd go back to the lazy river with Brinley.