Sunday's spotlight -

By guest blogger Pete.

For some years now I have been a member of the Lincoln branch of U3A. For the uninitiated amongst our readers, "U3A" is the rather pretentious title of "University of the 3rd Age". Basically it is an organisation for those whose years have advanced more than a little.

Amongst the groups that I belong to is the Art Class. In actual fact "class" is rather misleading because we don't have, nor do we want, a tutor. I'm not saying that we don't need one but that we don't want one. Instead some twenty of us meet together once a week to do painting. Most tutors will want their pupils to be doing the same topic because this makes their job easier. However we twenty member of the Art GROUP are all awkward wrinklies and want to do our own thing rather than a common project. Within the group we help each other whether advanced or beginner and as a result we have struck up good relationships with each other.

My forte - another pretentious word but it does make me appear to have been educated when I use it - is detail. I just love detail. I've been told that I should take a photo rather than do a painting because my paintings tend to resemble photos in their detail. This criticism doesn't worry me. At my age I think I'll paint what I want to paint and how I want to paint it. I attended a Local Education Authority Art Class in the early days of my retirement and the tutor there demanded that we produce a complete picture within 90 minutes. It drove me mad. I only completed the course because I had paid in advance AND the coffee after the class was rather good.


Last week at my U3A art group I started a new painting and I thought it might be interesting for you (and fun for me) if I showed you the incomplete work and then, from time to time, showed you the various other stages right up to completion - that is if it reaches completion. My wife says that I'm a pessimist but Oscar Wilde reckoned that a pessimist is a realistic optimist. I think I'm a realistic optimist.

Any idea where the painting is set? Enter your guesses in the comments section......