This week's progress

I started painting with oils around age 10 (a long time ago...). In university I worked in the studio in oils but the ventilation wasn't particularly good and the others complained about the fumes. So, I started experimenting with acrylics and have been using acrylics ever since. A few months ago I started getting frustrated with my acrylics drying too fast, despite using a couple of different slowing agents. Thank you dry, dry, Cariboo. I decided to try oils again.


My first large oil turned out quite well and I enjoyed the ease of blending. "Hey", 24"x24", oil on canvas. Idea came from a discussion of next year's theme for the Cariboo Artist Guild summer show.





This week I also decided to work an old 9"x12" picture of my daughter playing at the beach when she was a toddler. It didn't turn out the first time so I thought I would try again with oils. The result was still disappointing because I ignored some basic principles of art - one of the main ones being not to put the object right in the middle of the canvas. I like it for sentimental reasons but might just scrap this one...







It is a good thing we learn more from the challenges than from those works that go smoothly.


I have also been working on a 24"x24" acrylic of a cabbage. It was slow going, accomplishing not much more than a petal or two at a time. It is a good thing I am goal oriented, because there was little inspiration to motivate this one. It seemed like a good idea at the beginning but struggled with the process and wanting to try something different from my usual style. Regardless of the process, I was very happy to finally finish and see the end product. Thank you discipline. How much better will it be when I find that much desired inspiration again?





Two more in the "q" but that will be a surprise for next post...