A memory full of colour, oils and emotions.🎨

It is a pleasure for me to teach and to teach what I love to do most is doubly beautiful.

I have this memory in my mind with a lot of nostalgia, but also with a lot of joy to have been able to carry out one of my great dreams: to teach others to paint.

This dates back to 2015. At that time and since 2008 I had been giving computer classes for older adults, most of them retired, but from that year 2015 onwards the idea of giving painting classes came up.

Some of the students that I had been teaching computer classes showed a great interest in learning to paint in oils. For that reason I set up a space that I loved in my house in Argentina for that purpose.

It was a light patio, it had a lot of light and it was very special for me. I re-upholstered the chairs and raised funds to buy wood and set up the frames myself.

I got lecterns and table stands, it was a lot of effort, a lot of investment. I also bought oil paintings to sell to the students so that they wouldn't have to travel, at the best possible price.

It was not a large group, but it was a beautiful group of students. I was able to salvage the few photographs I took of those moments. All of them were over 70 years old, but they came to learn with great enthusiasm.

They would tell me that they didn't know how to draw and I would tell them that it didn't matter, I would do it and they would learn to paint.

In addition, a space of relaxation was created, of pleasant chatting, jokes and always with mate or tea in between.

There were two and a half hours of classes in which they, through painting, also made catharsis, became friends, and exchanged opinions.

Two of them are still alive and I have frequent communication with them. The lady you see dressed in green is no longer here, she passed away three months ago, she was almost 90 years old, but she was very happy in my classes.

She laughed so much, she had such a good time, she was a woman who lived almost locked up and going out and having contact with others was very good for her.

It wasn't just art, it was much more than that.

Little by little they were learning what the lights and shadows were, how much black to use, that white came last.

The tastes in painting varied, strong colours, lighter colours, classical or abstract painting.

I can still remember their laughs and voices, I can still hear them chatting and laughing, they were moments in my life, 3 years where I enjoyed that workshop very much. They learned a lot and advanced, but also enriched the soul.

They left an invaluable memory in me, a unique experience, because I had never taught painting before, I knew how to do it, but not if I could show what I knew how to do and I realised that I could.

I remember the smell of the paint, the water, the wood and I remember their happy faces.

One of them continued to paint, not only paintings, but also various handicrafts and that fills me with joy, I remember the day I taught her how to paint a dewdrop.

But this memory is not only about painting, but also about feelings. I remember Gilda very much, she was a special woman, often a child and she clung to me a lot. She had never had children, maybe that was the reason. She adored me and I adored her, although often, perhaps because of her age, she had trouble understanding things and had a bad memory.

As I write this post I can smell the oil all around me, those memories that you have with your senses and that will never be erased from my memory because they were very significant for me.

I gave to know what I know how to do, for what I went 11 years to drawing and painting and I was very happy giving to others that knowledge and giving a pleasant space in which my students were also happy.

Life is a give and take, and I received a lot from them in those classes for which I am very grateful.

Thank you all for accompanying me on this journey into the past, an important part of my life.

Best regards to all of you and see you next time.
Amonet.

_{All photographs are my own.
Separators created by me in Photoshop.
Used translator Deepl.com free version.}