Minnie Van Gogh!!

Today I painted a loon.
 

Given that I've almost never had a (non-utilitarian) paint brush in my hands, I was astonished and delighted with the result. Maybe I've got a future as a nature painter! (just kidding).

Context: volunteers for CNIB started a square-foot garden with raised beds to make it easier for the visually challenged to garden, if they should wish to. Now in its second year, on land provided by the City, it is a lovely little oasis about five blocks from my apartment. This year the CNIB organized a "Square Foot Garden Brown Bag Series" - four lunch-hour opportunities throughout the summer for people to drop in and do art of some sort.

The ever-energetic Pat Moore drew this to my attention and got me to go - here she is hard at it, with the garden in the background:

The paint, by the way, comes from the Yellowknife Dump - artist Diane Boudreau picks it up from there, uses what she needs for whatever workshop she's doing (and she does a LOT of workshops), then brings back what she doesn't use, as she has no room to store it. Here is Diane beside her supplies (clad in her inspirational "painting dress"):

Of course, I couldn't have produced what I did without Diane's expert guidance. Still - I was the main painter, and just to prove it, a picture of me at the beginning of what was about an hour's worth of activity:

What fun!