SLUMP TIME

Every artist seems to get to a place where they aren’t sure which way to go. I have arrived. What has happened is the initial, “Anything can happen”, when I approach the canvas to, “I have done all I know to do, and I’m not Rembrandt yet?”

What was I expecting? Not sure I guess. However; if I ‘push’ through and practice (which is what I have been doing), I will come out better than before with more insight.

Wish me luck, til next time.

—Stephen, 2022.09.24

Got a place to paint

Hello, I am still painting and now I have a room in our house to do it since the kids have moved away. I bought a big easel and getting into more canvas quality and stuff. I would list it, but it would not be that beneficial imo. A lot of different things work well, so best to get what you can and get to painting something.

I am still painting a lot of pets for people, which in itself could be a full-time job. However; I like to get crazy a lot of the time and try out new things and paint new scenes. I still haven’t found my niche. I may not have one actually. It doesn’t matter, since I just want to paint everything. Each time I go to the canvas it is an adventure of sorts. You never know what can happen.

I have decided I am an artist. That means people have told me so….haha. I don’t think I’m that good, but I still have a strong desire to be better. as long as I feel like that, I will be happy in my painting.

—Stephen

Friends and Commission Work

On my FB (FaceBook) page I have a lot of High School friends. I had heard about some passing and felt I wanted to maintain a presence there and at least know what is happening with everyone. It has been good.

One aspect has arisen, and it definitely wasn’t intentional. Some are starting to realize that I am an oil painter from people posting how much they like this or that. Also, several have purchased paintings and really love them and are pleased. Still others have sent me a photograph and asked if I could paint this or that. I give them a small list of sizes and prices, and they say go for it or not. There is no pressure either way.

I don’t necessarily want to keep all my paintings except a handful for various reasons, so I figure why not. People tell me I don’t charge enough, and that’s another blog for another day. I am a nobody, so there. So, I sell the real deal, the original oil or acrylic painting, and that’s fine. My house is beginning to run out of room. :)

I do believe I could advertise and market my stuff more, but like most artists, it isn’t about the money. It is about like Bob Ross always spoke about. It is “The Joy of Painting”, and that is what I like the most. Even Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get.” That is how I look at a blank canvas. You have an idea, but you really don’t know what will happen. That’s fun!

Painting People - Yikes!

Ok, it’s been a while since I made an entry. I have painted many pets since then and it has been great. I have found that I need to paint something I want to paint in between the commission works. It seems to reset my mind and lets me be creative and push the learning curve a bit.

But one nice lady asked me to paint her grand daughter and I did. Oh boy that was not exactly like painting a dog or a cat. Much more difficult. Maybe I will get better, or maybe painting people isn’t my ‘jam’, but I want to keep trying. She was happy with the end result even though I think I painted the little girls face 5 times.

Bottom line is that it seems all artists ‘run’ into areas where they must work harder at creating what they deem is acceptable in their own eyes. I know I have. But, you know, I am not discouraged since I can always paint something else that I think I am good at. Just remember, there will be times when you wonder, “who am I trying to fool, am I really a painter?” (Note: One day you will change from a painter, to an artist). I am still working on it.

PAINTING - Commission Painting

Yikes! You want me to paint your cat?! But, but, but……

Yeah, seems if people find out you are a decent painter, they may ask you to paint something dear to them like their pet. This has happened to me several times now and at first I was scared to death. What if it doesn’t look like their pet? How much should it cost them? What options do I offer them (ie. size, acrylic, oil, quality of materials, and what changes, if any to the original paint, etc..), what time frame, how long for drying time, frames? Well, to be honest, give them a few choices, sizes/price, and tell them what to expect and basically how long it will take, and they are good. Oh, also, if you can, keep them up to date on the work in progress (text or email them the painting) so if they have any changes they can let you know before you finish.

Luckily, all of my commissions have been very successful and the patrons have loved them. One has had me paint her daughter’s cat and dog as gifts for her . I think I like commissions because it helps me decide what to paint next. Since I haven’t ‘found’ myself yet, it helps in that area I think. —stephen

PAINTING - Plein Air....what?

Ok, what have we here? Plain Air, I mean Plein Air? Hmmm….

Seems this is a fancy term for painting outdoors. Ohhhh kay.

Well, my wife and I won a weekend vacation to a cabin on a small lake. So, I thought what a great place to try this! There must be something to it, or else people wouldn’t be so excited about it.

So, I grabbed some acrylics in a box and some canvas, canvas boards, and brushes and learned real fast, I need a travel easel for this stuff. So I moved over to a picnic table out by the front of the cabin and used a tiny display easel I luckily had brought. (see pic). Without going into all the details I learned first off that outside is big, and you can’t paint big. So, I limited my picture to what I could see in front of me, and sketched it to delineate the painting. Then I noticed all the colors and the movements and the sun, and the grass, and the trees, etc… It was a whole new deal.

I could really learn to like plein air painting and will do it again soon. One last thing, I don’t think you have to travel all over to do it. Maybe just as good in your backyard. Here’ s a link that tells a little about it.

https://www.outdoorpainter.com/what-is-plein-air-painting/

PAINTING - Learning

Now that I’ve painted stuff, what’s next?

Since starting to paint again, I have tried to give each painting a number. Looks like I’m up to 109. That basically means I’ve done a lot of Bob Ross’ stuff, watched some videos on the internet about using textures, painting portraits, and understanding abstract painting, using acrylics, pouring paint, and illustrators doing watercolor. I’ve tried some of these that I liked and they turned out pretty good. However; all the while I’m trying to define myself like a lot of these artists have, and I still don’t know ‘who’ I am. Aren’t I supposed to know by now? I don’t know how it all works, but my instincts tell me I haven’t arrived since I still want to paint everything.

So, until I get to where I’m going, I’ll just keep going, keep learning from the internet videos in earnest.

PAINTING - Can I buy?

“You mean people want to buy my paintings?”

After putting some of my paintings on FaceBook, several people contacted me wanting to know if I sell my paintings. “What!” You mean some people want to buy my paintings? But wait! Do I want to sell them; really? After all, these are my babies, my legacy? Nope! I began thinking that when I am 75 years old, (if I live that long), and look around and have hundreds of paintings, and my grandkids (if we ever have any), inherit them, they may just throw them away, who knows? So, YES, I will sell them. Of course, there are some that I will want to keep, but the majority need to be sold so others can enjoy them.

PAINTING - Bob Ross

Ever know someone or of someone that you either listen to on the radio, or watch on TV?

Well, I do. His name is Bob Ross. Most everybody has heard of him. Some of you probably watched his show on PBS, ‘The Joy of Painting’. I started painting with him using my iPhone, my easel, and his paints, and brushes. He is famous for his 2” brush. There’s even a website called https://www.twoinchbrush.com/ out there. You definitely need to check it out by clicking on the link. You will see a lot of my paintings there. I say ‘my paintings’ because Bob says in his videos to paint them, and sell them or whatever. He was a great artist and a great man. He still lives on for me whenever I get stuck and don’t know how to proceed, I go and find one of his paintings and follow his video and get back into it. I strongly suggest, if you want to get into oil painting, start looking at some of his videos.

PAINTING - DIVING IN

If you were asked to paint something, something you liked, what would it be? Well, if you had to paint it, you may choose something easy to paint.

I got my easel set up and bought a 18x24 inch canvas and had already looked on the internet for photographs or pictures to paint, and remembered Bob Ross from on TV from my youth.

I looked him up and youtube had all his TV shows. So I started looking at them and decided I would do some of his stuff and see how he painted. He told you everything you needed to do, and has a quiet voice which made it easy to listen to. He told you what colors of paints and stuff, and when I went back to the Hobby Lobby about 25 minutes south of our town, I got his paints. He actually had his own brand. I definitely made sure I got his ‘Magic White’ for his wet on wet style….

PAINTING - Curiosity

Can I paint? I mean everyone can paint if they want to. Why don’t they?

When the kids got old enough and moved out of the house, we had our son’s lizard in a large cage on the dresser in one bedroom; …. don’t ask. But we had another bedroom that I could use to paint? My wife and I talked it over and we decided that I could set up in there, but if someone was coming to visit (which was rare), we would move the lizard into the paint room for the time being and just shut the door.

So I now had a place to find out just what it is I wanted to paint.

PAINTING - Desire

Some people, well most people like art of some kind or another. Everyone is attracted by one thing or another: subject matter, shapes, colors, forms, feelings, emotions, memories, nostalgia, geometrics, etc.. the list goes on forever.

In my case it probably was color. Also, it was the ‘vacuum’ in my life of knowing that I should paint something. What? I didn’t know. I still am trying to find out. But I figured I needed some basic stuff and proceeded to the library (long time ago…), and checked out a book with images of the ‘masters’ of oil painting. I thought, “If I can do what they did, then I can see if I can paint”. So, I painted some Monet and Renoir paintings and thought, uhmmm…not bad. Then we had kids and it was time to put away the painting to raise children for a few years. —stephen