Ever since my first visit to a ceramic painting studio in 2009, my favorite way to celebrate my birthday has been to visit one and paint a plate or tile with underglazes. As someone who typically spends weeks at minimum on each painting, knocking out a painting in a day or two with family or friends is incredibly fun and relaxing to me. Additionally, I enjoy the challenge of trying to create something a little better and more ambitious each year. By March 2020, it had been well over a year since I had created a ceramic painting there, so that Spring break seemed like a great opportunity. My mom had been suggesting that I create more active frog paintings, so I though a Wallace’s Gliding Frog would be a perfect subject. After all, what is more active than a tree frog gliding down from rainforest treetops by using their toe webbing like a parachute?

To maximize the time I spent at the Paint-N-Play studio, I designed my frogs’ pose and drew it ahead of time, and brought with me several sheets of printed references. After a couple days spent combining references into an interesting pose, I packed a bag full of references and supplies, ready to paint the moment we got to Paint and Play on Thursday, March 12. While normally I try to finish in a single day, this time I wanted a piece nice enough I could potentially sell prints of it, so I planned to paint the frog on Thursday and the background on Friday. I had a wonderful time! My mom made amazing progress on her tiles, and my brother even showed up with his girlfriend, who I got to meet. However, I was so relaxed that I didn’t make much progress, so I resolved to work harder on Friday to finish it.

I was quicker on Friday, finishing the frog by 4pm. However, I had not fully planned out my background, which slowed me down, and the day was cut short when they closed the store early. Fortunately, this gave me extra time to plan out the background and all of Sunday to paint it. Even better, all of my friends off at college had come for Spring Break and able to join my mom and me. I was thrilled to see them again, even if I had to mostly focus on finishing my piece, and even with a third day, I, as usually for me, just barely finished in time. Despite rushing a bit to finish it, I had a good feeling about how my tile would end up, and spent the week eagerly anticipating the fired result.

After picking up my Wallace’s Gliding Frog tile on March 20 though, I was shocked it came out so much like I intended! The frog came out exactly like I hoped, even where I redid the shading on its back and face. More surprisingly, the background is muted and blurry, but still fills the space, just like I had hoped. The edges around the frog unfortunately came out transparent, so I should have added an extra coat, and apparently when a clear coat of glaze was added to my painting, a drip ran down the center and some white flecks stuck to my piece. But given all that could have gone wrong with this piece I am genuinely proud of the result. Since creating this piece, Paint-N-Play studio closed, making this Wallace’s Gliding Frog painting the last piece I had the pleasure of creating there, making this piece and the experience creating it all the more meaningful to me. I am especially happy that, right before the COVID-19 really hit Wilmington, this gave me an opportunity to spend time with my friends and family doing the thing I love most!

I was quicker on Friday, finishing the frog by 4pm. However, I hadn’t fully planned out my background, which slowed me down, and the day was cut short when they closed the store early. Fortunately, this gave me extra time to plan out the background and all of Sunday to paint it. Plus, all of my friends were home from Spring Break and able to join my mom and I! I was thrilled to see them again, even if I had to mostly focus on finishing my piece, and even with a third day, I (typically) barely finished in time! But I’ve been eagerly waiting to see the fired result today, and I’m shocked it came out so much like I intended! The frog came out exactly like I hoped, even where I redid the shading. More surprisingly, the background is muted and blurry, but still fills the space, just like I hoped! While it’s a little messy in places, given all that could have gone wrong with this piece I’m genuinely proud of the result! I’m especially happy that, right before the virus really hit, this gave me an opportunity to spend time with my friends and family doing the thing I love most.