Part of an ongoing series where I just talk about my paintings.
I wasn’t new to painting when I did this last year. I’d been painting and selling work for years, but it wasn’t very consistently. I’d do a few paintings here and there and then not do anything for a couple of months or years and so on. I developed my pointillist style about 4 years ago, so that wasn’t new either.
What was new about this painting was that it’s where I can clearly say it was the first of my sort of nonstop work ethic and my looking to make it a full time venture over the past year.
A bit earlier in the year I had bought some oil paints for the first time, Winton Oils, when the local AC Moore was shutting down and now I love painting with oil. I originally only got it because it was dirt cheap – like 75% off! But I’ve really come to learn that it’s so thick and works so well and doesn’t dry out fast, buying a tube of oil paint that costs twice as much as an acrylic paint, you’re probably actually SAVING money because the oil tube will last way longer than the acrylic…maybe except white, you always use the hell out of that.
Interesting side note on the white and lighter color oil paint. Next time you’re at the craft store or art store, pick up a tube of white, or blue oil paint in one hand and a tube the same size of black…it’s crazy, the weight difference is insane.
Okay, so earlier in the year I had painted a little series with the oil paints, but really had no intent or motivation to work on anything else.
So, that’s sort of where I was artistically, keeping the blankness of the canvas with my subject popping in bright colors. This was new to me for two reasons – first, these are my first oil paintings and second, I had pretty much exclusively been painting on plywood, so the canvas was new-ish. I like the look of how the natural wood comes through the little spaces when I paint – but wasn’t entirely sure if the bright white of the canvas would be okay. I think these turned out great though.
So, the AC Moore was closing out even more so I got a couple more tubes of paint and a pack of 11×14 canvases. I didn’t really have any ideas for them, the deal just seemed too good.
It got hot here pretty early in the spring last year. Painting in the heat with acrylic paint don’t really mix well in my experience. But armed with my new oil paints and with no need to keep rinsing the brushes off every 2 minutes, I decided to grab a canvas and just go outside.
So I started painting a frog. I thought a colorful tree frog would be neat, so I sat there in the hot in April and started painting. It was nice because something about painting nature while you’re out, hearing the animals, seeing the animals, feeling the wind, smelling the grass, it adds to what you’re conveying on the canvas. Initially I had intended the frog to be like the other paintings I had just done – a pointillist, colorful frog and a plain white background. But, while I was finishing up, I figured “what the hell” and started adding in some background, but not pointillist. The background would be solid.
My thinking on this is that when I’m painting something like this, the pointillist explosion of time and energy is solely reserved for the living creature I’m focusing on. It’s their time to shine.
It was new to be spreading the paint across the canvas since all of my painting for the past few years has been entirely dots.
I’ll often juxtapose trees by using lines against the dots of the main subject. I feel like its sets a nice contrast and a differentiation between animal and plant kingdoms. Additionally it helps the mind accept that our frog is on something solid that will hold him.
There’s so much ridiculous out there and things that just irritate you, it’s healthy to just focus on the simplicities in nature, even if idealized in a mood like I paint and draw in. It’s good for the mind to have something positive, innocent, naïve.
Thanks for stopping by, if you like this post, please like, sub up and get more little bite sized bits of art news and meanderings. To find my art, check out my site, Bumpkin Patch Gallery where my 31 Cats collection is now available for DIGITAL download for just $10 for each Set of 5 cats, but lots more available and much more coming this year. And through April, special offer just for readers of this blog, follow the link for the SPRING 20% off discount. Thanks, have a great day and I’ll be right back with another post.
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