About
Spent the afternoon in front of an art/furniture galley in my town. Didn’t get a lot of painting done, but met a lot of great people from around the country.
It all started when…
My mother is artistic, if I inherited her talents I am forever thankful. I used to read comic books growing up, and would sometimes try and draw the characters. But most of the time I played outside or did sports because that’s what we did. One day, not sure why, but I went to the library and got a book on “The Masters” to see what they did. I liked Monet and Renoir mostly because of their impressionistic style. So I tried to paint what they painted, and it seemed pretty daunting at first. I learned I had to learn more about oil painting but managed to paint several paintings.
Then my wife Julie and I had a child and the painting had to wait, because I was much busier. Then we had another child and raised them. I didn’t think about painting much through those years.
The kids moved out and we experienced the “empty nest” syndrome, and I took over one of the two extra rooms and setup my easel and started watching Bob Ross videos on my iPhone. I must say, he made it easy to learn the basics of oil painting. That was only a year and a half ago (today is 2019.08.09), and I have painted about 110 paintings now. Mostly oil, but also acrylic, impasto, pourings, pencil, etc… I wanted to learn, since I have no formal training, so I turned to the many wonderful artists online that have tutorials. There is no moral of the story, except that painting to me is an adventure of sorts. Like reading those comics as a kid, you just never know what is going to happen. I am thankful to some degree that I had no formal training because I do not know what is wrong or right, so I make it up. Like that painting above, haha, I used my hands and fingers to paint it. It is what I use most of the time. I don’t recommend it, but it is easier for me to paint that way even though I constantly try to use brushes..