My first attempt at painting!

It's always good to try new things, so back in January of this year, my 84 year old father and I took a painting class together at the local adult center. It's offered free through parks and recreation in Raleigh and taught by a wonderful 88 year old Hungarian by the name of John.  A wonderful teacher although somewhat crotchety, but a great sense of humor.  I've decided that we aren't really taking a painting class, but rather we are just his apprentice's.  You do what he says.  "You use one brush for Pete's sake!"
I've always been fairly competent with a pencil and paper and even had a painting class about 20 years ago at Meredith College.  It was awful and I don't think I learned that much...perhaps then I was too impatient.  John doesn't allow that.  You work on it until it's done...and he made me work on it over and over again until I started seeing how to mix paint and apply it properly.  I've always been able to differentiate light and shadow (obviously as a photographer), so the trick was learning the application and technique of brush to canvas.  I think I worked a total of 150 hours from January 28th until I put the final coat of varnish on last week.  Proud of the effort and have started on my second already.  To give credit where credit is due, John has us copy another work of art by a master painter.  Mine is a loosely referenced rendition of a painting of Cambridge, Vermont by T.M. Nicolas.