A picturesque scene at Centennial Park was the proper backdrop for an evening of learning to paint.
On Friday, Aug. 5, the Ponoka Visitor Information Centre hosted one of its weekly summer programs — this one aptly named Paint in the Park — which attracted 10 enthusiastic students wanting to learn and use techniques to paint on canvas. The class was one of the few programs offered this year that came with a nominal cost, just $5, and was restricted in the number of participants due to the space being used.
Local artist Chloe Jensen, who is hoping to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Red Deer College in the future, conducted the class outdoors.
“When I was asked, I thought it would be fun to do,” said Jensen before the class began.
“I haven’t had much of an opportunity to do much lately and I had some spare time so I was happy to do it.”
Jensen, who has been at painting more seriously for the last years has dabbled in it most of her life, used the class to walk the students through the entire process of copying a Bob Ross painting. Ross, who died in 1995 at the age of 53, was an American painter, art instructor and best known as the creator and host of The Joy of Painting that ran on U.S. public television from 1983 to 1994, but also aired in Canada.
“It looks really hard, but I have tried to make it easy to understand,” Jensen added.
Unfortunately for both the students and Jensen, the easy part of the night was the painting, with the gusting wind creating challenges by blowing down the easel Jensen was using as well as the painting everyone was trying to copy and nearly anything else that wasn’t nailed or stapled down.
There are a couple of more programs on tap for the rest of August, including one on rock painting for kids set for this Friday, Aug. 12 starting at 1 p.m. at Centennial Park.