SOLON & BEYOND: The teacher-less painting group

by Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning to all of you; I hope you all have a wonderful day! This week I am using parts of a column that I wrote in 2019, when I don’t remember that it was as cold as this year has been so far. It was called, “Looking back on journalism career”.

I have enjoyed writing for several different papers over these many years, and during that time I also started taking the oil painting classes at Skowhegan Adult Education and enjoyed them very much. Peggy Riley was the teacher and I had learned many new techniques through her instruction, and had made many new friends. Peggy decided that she wouldn’t be teaching when the January’s sessions started up again, and when I saw that the classes weren’t going to be offered for that semester I was disappointed. I came up with the crazy idea of having a teacher-less painting club. I went to the administrator’s office and asked them if they would let me do this with a teacher-less painting club. I went to the administrator’s office and asked them if they would let me do this with a teacher-less person running. Was very, very happy and pleased when they would let me do this when they gave their permission.

When I arrived the first night I was given the attendance folder with M. Rogers, instructor, on the cover. The word “Instructor” went to my head a little, and one night when one of the members was misbehaving, I gave him a push and he nearly fell over, bending his glasses in the near fall. Since then I don’t rule with an iron hand! Some people would not agree with that statement, I’m pretty sure!

And now back to the picture and write-up about this teacher-less painting class! Members at that meeting were Suzanne Currie, Shirley Foxwell, Linda Sullivan, Gerda Pilz , Betty Dow, Dana Hall, Linwood Turcotte, Peter Foxwell and me. The column ended with these words: We meet every week for three hours of relaxation in a pleasant atmosphere and I know I look forward to our Monday night sessions. I’m pretty sure the other nine members feel the same way. And now for Percy’s memoir: Enthusiasm may mark the difference between success and failure. Undertakings entered into half-heartedly often lack the extra or the plus that can lift them over the hurdle in one piece.

This one piece from this week: there will be a Cross Country Ski Meet-up with Skowhegan Outdoors, 1 – 3 p.m., Sunday, January 30, 2022, at the Western Woods & Waters River Trail.