"Pinot Noir" by @youhavewings

How my drawing got its name.

This is my very first colored drawing experience in art class. Unfortunately, I was petrified to try color on my second drawing. I am much more the the "messy graphite girl'! It feels more natural to me. So adding color to my black and white world was quite petrifying. I am really not good with color. My lovely teacher talked me into starting with pencils to take the color plunge. "Oh no....don't outline your drawing."....."Oh no....start with the lighter colors."

Now this art class, consisting of 5 women, resembled an ensemble right out of the movie, "Steel Magnolias". Each woman bringing with her her own story and essence and together it made for evenings full of laughter, bonding and story telling. There was the fairy-like creature (my teacher) giggling and flitting around the room, the older botanical gardener/historian, the chitter chatter academic, the young student and me.

So, naturally came the addition of Pinot Noir to class - compliments of my lovely teacher who always liked to dress each bottle with flowers from her garden and a set of her grandmother's glasses. Even I, who rarely drank, couldn't pass up such a beautiful and artistic display of laughter in a bottle. This became the 'tradition' with the exception the older gardener bringing a sampling of her moonshine (lightning in a bottle) infused with herbs from her garden ;) I swear I just watched!

Needless to say, my flower was slow going with so much laughter and fun going on but eventually it took on its own individual personality and I learned that color wasn't so scary - especially with Pinot Noir!

And when my flower was finally finished, all these beautiful women that I bonded with joined me in celebrating the accomplishment as we had done with each one of theirs. I did it! Petrified of color no more! And as we sat there smiling at it, the art teacher, in her excitement, tipped over my glass of Pinot Noir spilling it on my colored drawing. You could have heard a pin drop....all eyes on the wine pooling across the pristine white paper and then back at me to see my reaction. Shock. Utter shock. Then 'acceptance'.

My teacher was mortified with her hands frozen stiff against her face - Then "I AM SO SORRY!" Yeah, I could have been upset...but I realized in that moment that the flower was much more than 'a drawing' - it represented these many months of laughter and story telling, of trust and openness. It was a colorful, happy flower. How could I be upset? "You know...I think I'll call this flower "Pinot Noir"..."Maybe I could..." My teacher chimed in, "We can paint over it....we can cover it." I told her that I wasn't sure that was necessary as it kind of gave it personality and made it more sentimental.

Of course, we did eventually cover the wine stain....but I left the wine showing on the back to always remind me of this experience in my art journey.

Title:	(Pinot Noir)
Size:	(11x14)
Medium:	(Prisma Color, Pinot Noir wine)
Duration:	(Much too long)