 Through her lessons with Hungarian painter Bella Paytho, Duluth-based artist Arna Rennan has created a style all her own. Break it up a bit. She's passing along her technique of starting with a bold, exaggerated underpainting, jokingly referred to as the Velvet Elvis effect. So you've got something dark and dramatic to work with and then you modify and nuance it with oil. Jane Freeman wasn't so sure how it was going to turn out. This is not my wheelhouse at all. As a watercolor artist, she's conditioned to do the exact opposite. I get really nervous if I go this dark. It's like, what am I going to do with that because I can't correct. But here I can. But Rennan wants the women to fight the urge to overcorrect. Instead, she wants them to finish the impressionism landscapes within a two-hour time span. I really have difficulty persevering beyond three hours because it is an intense interaction. One of the class participants says she's typically a very slow, meticulous painter and enjoys working under very controlled circumstances. So Plenaire was kind of throwing her off. You can't control the weather. You can't control the wind. You can't control the bugs. As a middle and high school art teacher, Deb Carlson is taking it all in and enjoying being a student again. If a teacher says try something and I'm taking class, I'm going to try it. By expanding their horizons, Rennan has given each of them a new perspective on the world around us. I'm hearing all of these artists point out all these wonderful compositions and I never saw any of it and I live right here. It's what makes a class like this invaluable. Even those just starting out can contribute to the experience. A lot of times someone who's never done something will notice something or bring something up that a professional has never even thought of. With this week's In Focus in Bagley, I'm Mal Meyer, Lakeland News. You wonderful year of reporting for Lakeland. This will be Mal's final report for us. Mal has covered crime, the environment, education and of course our In Focus segment. We would like to wish him all the best as he moves on and continues to his pursuit in journalism and of course I know he's good friends with a lot of my friends. We're going to miss him greatly. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.