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Wine & Paint Night = New Clock Designs

A good friend of mine retired from the Coast Guard and decided to move to Florida. Before the move, his wife wanted to do a wine and paint night with me. The scene we painted was a palm tree on an island during sunset. The night started out really fun. I enjoyed painting the sun and spending time with my friend’s wife. The longer the night went on, though, the more my anxiety crept up, especially when I started on the palm tree. I could not figure out how to make my leaves look good. The more I tried, the more of a mess I was making. My friend’s wife was having a great time and her picture looked really good. I stopped painting my picture and just enjoyed watching her and our conversation.

After we were finished, we looked at all the other paintings. Some ladies painted their pictures exactly like the instructor had (and as I tried). Other ladies used different colors or added things to their paintings. One lady used blue for the background and added a cat, if I remember correctly. My friend’s wife and I took a picture of us with our paintings and then went out to dinner.

I had a fun night and kept the painting and moved on with my life….until…a few months later, a co-worker asked me to design a clock for his wife. The way my co-worker described the clock he wanted sounded almost like the painting I did during wine night. He described it slightly differently, though, and being a new artist, I tried to give him exactly what he wanted. When that didn’t work out (who saw that coming?!?), I painted what I originally wanted to paint. My co-worker loved it. More importantly, his wife loved it.

I made a few more clocks and even some signs similar to that design and then I decided to do an art swap with a friend of mine. This time I wanted to do the exact painting we did during wine night. Alas, I cannot paint palm trees. I don’t remember what the joke was, but we did have an inside joke involving mushrooms. I improvised and he loved it.

All clocks and signs are available on this website.

For My Co-Worker’s Wife

Sign

The night that started it all

Nick’s Clock (no palm tree)

2 thoughts on “Wine & Paint Night = New Clock Designs

  1. Hi. Just wanted to let you know that I got your book and yesterday, and finished it today. Well done. I was the SKC/SKCS at Sector Mobile from 2011-2015, and I remember the great job you did there. I had similar struggles with the scale throughout my career as well, and I don’t miss that part of Coast Guard life. I’m glad things are going well for you.

    1. Thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate them. And thank you for your purchase of the book. If you wouldn’t mind, please review the book on Amazon. The more reviews I get, the more Amazon advertises it and puts it towards the top during searches. Either way, thank you for coming to my website, too. I hope you are doing well. I assume you made it to retirement. If so, congratulations.

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