There were not many silver linings during the COVID outbreak however one that comes to mind is that many people took up, or revisited, hobbies that helped pass the time and gave some peace of mind during a difficult period.  I was one of those people.    In my younger years I enjoyed sketching and art in general however in my early teens I abandoned those pursuits for other diversions.  When I retired, I started taking some art lessons including sketching and acrylic painting.  Shortly after COVID hit, I began spending more time painting.  I was fortunate to find an on-line painting class offered by Layal Annan, a wonderfully talented painter and instructor.   Her teaching methodology was simple “Learn by Doing”.  Her classes involved learning different techniques by painting together.  She patiently walked us through colours, blending, shading, perspective etc. as we created our own art with her.  She motivated us through positive feedback and a diversity of subject matter.   My thanks to Layal for her inspiration and patience.   My gallery is comprised of works that I have divided into categories that I thought logical.  Much of my work is inspired by, or based on, work by other artists or photographers and I have done my best to assign proper credit by indicating the artist’s name in brackets.  If I could locate the name of the picture, I would also use it (again, in brackets); if not, I would assign my own name for the painting.  You will note that in many cases I have provided credit to “Annan” - this indicates that the picture was done as part of the classes offered by Layal.  In most cases, these were based on photos she had on file that she used as references.   I hope you enjoy the work as much as I enjoyed doing them (that sounds a bit overused but still applies).        Mike ​ Guidance on use of site Hover over category to generate "view more" instruction Click on "view more" to see more pictures in category Once into category, click on first picture and then scroll with arrows to see remaining pictures in category When you view last picture in category X out and return to top of page of category Arrows at top of page allows movement between categories Final category - arrow to return to title page