The Journey Begins

I've gathered all the painting exploits that I've accomplished since I started oil painting in January. It's truly amazing what one can see by looking at a progression from beginning to current time. Even with my dabbling, I can tell that I've made progress and have improved!

I've started this blog to track that progression, to hopefully get some feedback and/or criticism, to improve my techniques, and to give me that much-needed impetus to do a painting or two on a regular basis.

Like all newbie painters, I've accumulated quite the number of small paint tubes. I've got lot's of colors, but learned that yes, it is SO true, all you really need is four colors - ultramarine blue, cad red or alizarin crimson, a cad yellow, and titanium white - to mix any color you might need. And being a newbie fresh out of the gate, I can tell anyone out there that is just starting that it is so liberating to use only a limited palette in painting! Four colors and four questions - warmer or cooler, lighter or darker... That is perhaps the biggest lesson I've learned so far. I'll share these tidbits of wisdom that should NOT be ignored in future posts, but my point is that since I've so many tubes and colors that I'm going to have to do something to use them all up. I have a plan for this that I haven't seen in any of the areas that I've been stalking - so stay tuned!!

So, where are the 'paintings', you're asking. Well, I have photos of most but not all. I'm going to get photos of the remaining that I need and I'll get them up for all to peruse. I just got a small camera that I've been using to scout out subjects and painting spots. It works REALLY well and since I can't for the life of me figure out how to get a wet canvas or panel scanned on a scanner without ruining both the scanner and the painting, well you get the idea! I've decided that the way I'm going to label them will not be from 1 to 100 but from 100 to 1 so that what I believe to be the worst of the bunch will not be the one considered 'No. 1'! It'll also provide what I like to think of as a countdown to bigger and better things!

Well, for a man of few words I think I've exceeded my quota for now. I simply wanted to get this first post out of the way and set the expectations for this blog.

Photographs to come soon!!