Art lessons

I love to grow myself by overcoming challenges. If I try to do something that I think is difficult, I tell myself not to expect too much out of the first attempt. But, like thousands of people found out before me, those further attempts slowly get easier and better and finally I come up with quite a standard output. I tried that with writing, programming, cooking, knitting/crocheting and it worked every time. So there is no doubt it will work for oil painting as well.

Oil painting is difficult. Anyone who has tried to paint with oil colors know that. That is why when I paint after a long time, I try something very simple. Then slowly my brush strokes get bolder and more confident. I am not so shaky in understanding what colors I need and the entire concept of painting becomes much less formidable. I have a smug feeling inside. I generally don't like my own paintings, they seem either comical or very amateurish, not the way I like them to be. Same about my writing. I don't really like them. But then, there are some that I genuinely like. I have heard that if you like your own paintings that means you don't have any way to grow yourself from there, but I hope that's not the case with me. I very much know that I have a LOT to learn.

There are quite a few areas in life where I am very conservative. Say for example, marriage and family values or literary works, I am absolutely an admirer of the classics. Same about art. I just don't understand abstract art and I also fail to understand those people who admire them. Seriously, you can look at a blotch of paint next to a weird shaped human eye, then read an entire paragraph on what the artist has explained about that thing and then say "that is so unique, that shows the feeling of the artist" and buy that painting for a lot of money?? Seriously???Whew!!! Well, I don't object to someone pouring his heart out on a bit of canvas, I don't care if that is just a weird array of peculiar shapes put at random locations but what I don't like is calling them "art work". To me, actual art work shouldn't need to come with any explanation. People would need to just stand in front of that and love that. Like the paintings of the Renaissance age, or the later Dutch painters. Even in today's world, there are many examples. Would Thomas Kincaid's paintings need any "explanation"? Nor would his "style" has to be peculiar like Jamini Roy's paintings where human eyes protrude out of human faces. If I paint something like that people would think I have gone crazy :D

Anyway, coming back to oil painting. I have come a long way from my first art lessons when I drew and
colored in drawing books. Advancing to splashing water color in attempts of painting landscapes. That was the time I didn't like to paint. I hated going to art school. But then I returned after seven years to complete my diploma and properly learn painting. That's when I learned oil painting. With that, all throughout those years I learned about different types and techniques of painting and about different artists too. Painting on canvas came years later when I started to visit Daniel Smith's store in Bellevue. Now my long brushes are getting cleaned in turpentine, a painting is drying in the same room and my easel with tubes of paint in it's drawer is waiting for the next still life. I like to paint still life with oil, landscapes with water color and portraits or human figures look great with pen and ink or charcoal.

After using my left brain continuously for eight hours, when I come home I try not to do technical stuff but concentrate on totally different things which are artistic or literary that would help me use the other side of my brain. These artistic attempts come from that thought :)

I may take breaks from painting, yes, but I will never lose touch with it ever.