Father and Son time...

Portrait of Geno Smith, American Football Seahawks Quarterback player

Oil on Canvas 24" x 36"

Father and Son Time

"Dad, I wanna do some Oil Painting of this over my Spring break." - got a message from my son Bhuvan, last Sunday, a day before he was scheduled to fly from Detroit to Boston for a 5-day Spring break, coming home. Along with the message, he sent me a picture of American Football player - Seahawks team  Quarterback, Geno Smith.

"Sure Boo babu, I will teach you.", I replied.

I was looking forward to the moment. He arrived Monday night. Tuesday morning he wanted to start his very first Oil Painting. Of course, he watched me several times doing Oil Paintings.

Day-1, Tuesday

All my Art material, framed paintings, blank canvases were still inside boxes in the basement in our new house we moved into 2 months ago. I took a 30 minute break after my morning meetings to open up the boxes, finding all required for him to start painting. I was able to locate and find all needed.

In the afternoon break, I quickly showed him on a canvas size newsprint paper, how to start sketching with a pencil, then outlining with a single Oil Paint, and then start underpainting. I even showed him how to hold the brush for an ease of hand movements. Bhuvan has been a keen observer right from his childhood. He picked up all in no time and then get going all by himself.

His underpainting looked very good in just one color of some brown shade. He followed all what I said identifying 3 different areas of light: leaving white canvas in the lighter areas, covering dark areas with paint, and covering light areas with lighter shade of the same color. He was on the right track.

Day-2, Wednesday

He asked me about how to proceed with the next steps. I explained him how to choose colors, mix colors on the palette, start painting the first abstract layer. He continued along the path.

Day-3, Saturday

Two days he didn't touch it, and as he was leaving Sunday morning, he was determined to finish it on Saturday afternoon. He focused on details, changed background the way he was visualizing the finished painting. He was on a mission that afternoon to complete. Indeed he finished and signed. He was so happy of his accomplishment at the end; took lot of pictures with it.

He came to me after dinner and shared his most happy moment, saying- "Dad, do you know that I posted this painting on Instagram and tagged "Geno Smith" and he liked it.", showing me that. I know that a sports star responding to an unknown fan's post/story on social media is a defined moment. I was extremely happy for Bhuvan.

Carrying forward the Legacy...

Kids watch us very closely, learn, and follow. I still remember the only one incident of my Dad doing an art work of "Swami Vivekananda" that I watched a little bit when I was 6 years old. That was a "defining moment" which put me on my Art journey with a life-long passion for it.

I am quite happy that my son started getting back onto his early developed childhood Art sense. Once you feel the "kick" of how satisfied you will be from your creation, you want to experience it again and again. That's an amazing feeling in any Art!

For me, it took 3 months to finish my very first oil painting. Bhuvan did it in just 3 days, working few hours each day. Also, it's big in size, 2 feet x 3 feet. I did not have any master to learn from. That's the difference. Learning from a master is like learning years of his experience in just a very short-time. One must be lucky to have this kind of opportunity. I am lucky to have my Son learning years of my experience.

I am with an amazing feeling now - my soul lives longer with my Son in his first Oil Painting, a first of it's kind experience.

"When my Son carries my legacy, I extend my life."

~ Giridhar Pottepalem