Patch Spring Tour: Stop 5 - Adult Water Color Class

I left City Hall today feeling like I had just had a fast one pulled on me.

As part of my , I stopped in and observed the Parks & Recreation Department’s Older Adult Watercolor Painting class this morning.

I was told multiple times this six-week class that meets for two hours every Wednesday morning was for “beginners.” Instructor Earlean Kurtin and her five students – Carole Stock, Sandy Palus, Kathy Ziebell, Jean Vis and Larry Kaiser – must have all been in on the gag.

As I looked at Carole’s painting of a fisherman casting out in the water, and Larry’s illuminating lighthouse, and as Kathy brushed and blotted her way through a detailed and darling palm tree in less than an hour, I had to ask:

“Are you sure this is a beginner’s class?”

Granted, I don’t have an eye for art. Heck, I can barely even describe it. I found myself complimenting the students with phrases like “that’s cool” or “oh, how pretty,” and two paragraphs ago I called a palm tree “darling."

I don’t know what makes a painting good or bad, what is frameable or just worthy of a few magnets and the refrigerator door.

But what I saw today was, well, inspiring. Here were five students, all 55 years or older, painting beautiful pieces of art I’d be proud to hang in my living room. All doing so with just a few lessons from Earlean and practice on their own.

I was told by the Parks & Rec Department that today I’d see the progress each student made. They weren’t kidding.

“At first, when you sign up, some people think, ‘Oh, I can’t paint. I shouldn’t do that,’” said Sandy, who is in her second six-week session. “But once you get going, you can’t stay away.” 

Larry, arguably the class’s star pupil, said since starting the class, he paints sometimes as many as six hours a day. He said painting has been therapeutic and that “this art class has changed my life.” 

I was lucky to meet these six gracious and gifted individuals and glad they shared a little bit about their lives and their love of painting. 

And the Patch Spring Tour rolls on…