Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/1356325
| OHCC LIVING | APRIL 2021 | 27 Art room Judy Harris and Lainy Vinikow are delighted with the works of our resident artists and this month we are pleased to present the story and the creative talents of Shellie Bean. My husband, Larry, and I moved to OHCC in June of 2017 and might I say we just love it. We have met so many people and they have all been friendly, welcoming, and supportive. What a great community to surround yourself with during this period in life. My art journey started when I was a child growing up in the Santa Monica Mountains. We had neighbors with horses and I used to sit outside their fence and sketch the horses for hours on end. Both art and horses were put on hold for about the next 40 years while school, working and raising a family kept me busy. My love for horses, however, remained strong and in 1995 Larry and I bought a horse boarding and training facility in the Del Mar area of San Diego and moved from Laguna Beach to that area. Larry was busy selling Real Estate so it was my job and my joy to manage the horse facility. After a few years in the Del Mar area we moved to Fallbrook where we were alone on 7 ½ acres with not a neighbor in sight. It was the perfect place for us in 2000 as we were having fun raising horses. The baby horses had a great place to run and play along with our two dogs and visiting grandchildren who loved all the animals, riding the older horses and driving the tractor. The art was still on hold until about five years before moving to OHCC when I took a three-hour class in watercolor at the Fallbrook School of Art. The teacher talked for about two hours and 45 minutes and we finally got to wet a brush and put it into the paint. I did a tiny painting of red flowers in a pot and was hooked. I went from there straight to an art store and bought a beginner set of watercolors and a couple of brushes. The next morning I was up at 5 am and searching YouTube for watercolor classes. (There are thousands, by the way, if you are interested.) That was the beginning of my journey and I got up early every morning and painted along with some online artist or another for a few hours before going to work at the stables in Del Mar. The online classes were working great but eventually I realized what was missing was feedback and direction and it was time for real help. My first "teacher" was delightful and enthusiastic and everything I did was "Beautiful," "Wonderful" or some similar exclamation. After about a year of that I realized that she really wasn't teaching me much so I searched for another instructor and found a lady named Pam that taught watercolor at the Fallbrook Community Center. I took one of my paintings to her that I thought was pretty good and asked "What would you suggest I do to improve this?" She studied my painting for a couple of minutes and then replied "If it were me, I'd start over." I knew I'd found someone who would actually teach me and I continued painting with her until shortly after I moved here.