By Tam Nguyen, NGUOI VIET
A view of the class. Minh Vu’s painting of a house. Masterpiece of zebras in progress. Hiep Do painting a picture of a park.
WESTMINSTER, Calif. ― The senior citizens filed in through the door, sketchpad in hand, looking for an empty seat. It was, after all, the first day of school.
As many put on their glasses to survey the classroom setting, the instructor got the materials ready. Eager to learn, and eager to help, the students offered to help set up, filling cups of water.
Welcome to the class, unofficially called Introduction to Watercolors, taught to a crowd of about 30, mostly men between ages 60 and 70. This day’s lesson — using the watercolor pallet – was new to some students, a refresher for others with some painting experience.
“It has been a long time since I doodled, and it reminds me of when I was in school so many years ago,” said Minh Vu, 66, of Westminster. As he began to mix water with the color palate, he searched for inspiration on what to paint. He finally got the idea of painting a picture of a house and a background of trees and mountains.
As he went on, his classmates liked what they saw and encouraged him, calling it a masterpiece in progress. He smiled.
“I heard about this class from a friend and wanted to try it out since I had nothing to lose,” he said while drawing a house with two windows and a door in the foreground and the sun in the sky in the background.
The class is a relaxing, friendly environment.
“I think I am going to like this class because I just made a new friend,” said Dung Tran, 60, of Garden Grove. He showed that new friend a squiggly line and told him it supposed to be a tree; his friend disagreed, saying the line looked like his skinny body. They both laughed so loud that the instructor had to shush them.
Tran’s friend, Han Dinh, went on painting his picture of a pair of zebras.
The instructor, Hiep Do gave the student tips on how to properly draw a tree and that tree suddenly turned into a park with a pond. The students tried to copy the drawing but thought their efforts fell short. Do said he disagreed.
“A masterpiece is not how good a painting is, but it is the effort and dedication the artist has to make it a masterpiece,” he told the students.
With that, one student said he considered his a masterpiece and while the rest of the class didn’t go along with that, Do said he saw artistry.
“It does look like pretty good,” he said. “I can actually see the scenery. Not everyone’s mind is the same as they have different views of things.”
The class is sponsored by Bowers Museum of Santa Ana. The class is held once a week on Wednesdays from 1:30-3:30 p.m. at the community room of Nguoi Viet, 14771 Moran St. The class is free and open to the public.
