It had been a long time since I’d painted in oils. Oh, I’d gotten canvas boards, paints, brushes, all the paraphernalia, but then, I just left them tucked away. The thing of it was, I was intimidated.
Pencil sketches, watercolors, Prismacolor–all those media were familiar to me, as oil once was, so why did I procrastinate? I was afraid of making one big, colorful mess!
So, yesterday, I took courage in hand and began. Oh, my! I’d forgotten that oils are messy and smelly and require a lot of cleaning up after. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I wanted to paint a stormy sky. Should be simple, right? Yes, it should be, but my sky turned out looking like a child’s mud pie. So, to YouTube for a tutorial. OK. That was nice. I saw what the artist did, surely I could do that. So, I tried. My mud pie sky looked only slightly improved.
One good thing about oils is that they are easily removed when wet. So, I removed the sky, watched the tutorial for a second time, a third time. Finally, my attempt looked a little better.
I’m not a glutton for punishment, so I decided to leave the rest of the picture until another time. I propped it against the back splash, cleaned brushes, cleaned area, cleaned hands. The only reminder of my re-encounter with oils was a pungent odor, scent, smell.
Not easily discouraged, today I’ll try again. Call it perseverance or stubbornness, but I’m bound to get the hang of those oils once more. The work of art may be on my hands instead of the canvas, but I’ll let you know how it turns out.
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