Today I was blessed with several hours with nothing planned...

so I headed outdoors to do my first oil and first en plein air painting.

Isn't the view from our backyard gorgeous?

I recently began an oil painting in my art class, but one hour a week is precious little time for a painting! So today I found an unopened set of oil paints that I had gotten when I was ten (the prospect of using turpentine scared me away from oils) and opened them up for the first time.

The painting didn't turn out the way I wanted, and I am completely humbled by artists who can create masterpieces using oil paints. I have a lot to learn. I finally decided that if I touched the canvas, I was going to completely mess it up. So I'm calling it an "impressionistic" painting and leaving it as is.

My seven year old sister came and painted with me (she used acrylics). I left her to her own devices... she only came to ask for help with making mixing a "light green that's not yellow." Isn't her treeline cute?