I took an oil painting class in 2004 with Gerald Smith at the Ottawa School of Art. This is the first oil painting I completed (aside from one when I was 12). The exercise was to complete a painting over the course of two classes based on a photo we brought in. My photo was one I took at Tynehead Park in Surrey, BC.

During the class a student asked Gerald how to put the paint on the canvas. She had never done it before. He said, “You take your brush, dip it in the paint, and then put it on the canvas. I’m not going to do it for you or even show you. Do you think anyone in any of my studies ever showed me? No. You just do it.”

Be still my beating heart.