Painting Like Raoul - Sort Of

Raoul said: "make lots of big blobs of color,
Not any particular shape, balance the colors.
Outline the scene with quick fine lines."
[Note to the reader: Raoul's words came to me through Kay.]
I outline what I see, although I don't see too well,
The outlines are not where they should be,
Where I want them to be.
Maybe, this works because life comes to us kind of blobby
And we need to sharpen the details.
Still, it's a garden, my first painting since Eighth grade
At Woodrow Wilson Junior High School,
Now Woodrow Wilson Middle School,
But teaching and learning are still going on.

I guess I learned something about painting
In the 60 years in between.
I never thought I was learning how to paint,
I just thought that I was living,
Studying physics to find out how things worked,
Learning to play basketball, so I could score with a graceful jumper,
Playing defense by thinking about what was going to happen,
Learning to pass to people where they could score,
Learning to be a team
Meeting a wonderful woman, who saved my life,
Learning to be a couple,
Learning to be a family,
Learning to raise great kids,
But I never thought I was learning how to paint.

Now that I have learned a little painting,
And finished (almost) my first painting,
I start my second painting.
We take our paints to Carmel and sit in our neighbor's patio,
It has a better view of the ocean and the sunset.
Nearby a clump of California Poppies said, "Paint me."
I had loved their bright, shining orange forever.
Once, we had some growing in our yard,
But the gardeners killed them and they never came back.
Raoul says to me, "First a bunch of green blobs.
They can be the same or a different green,
You can blend them if you like,
Then some orange blobs, bright as you can make them
With a bit of yellow partway round them."
Back to our motel room for the hair dryer,
Thoughtfully provided for visiting artists.
Takes almost as long to dry the painting, as to paint it.
Back outside to outline the poppies and their stems.
Great orange flowers when I was done,
But, ooh-la-la, not great orange California Poppies.

Oh, well.  Back to the drawing board (actually the patio table).
At the beach, we had picked up seaweed, shells, and rocks.
One of the shells seemed especially beaytiful,
A shell I had never seen before.
Blobs of color appear, some concentric circles, some line-shaped.
Lines show parts of the shell.
Done.  I have a picture of an object,
But it wasn't really the shell before me or the shell I had in mind,
But it could be a shell.
While I painted, I had a painting lesson as well.
While I was paintng,
I sat in the sun near the beach, listening to the waves.
Thanks, Raoul.  Thanks, Kay.
How can any painter lose?