I am happy to say I have had my first request to paint a picture  for money.  It is a beginning of recouping some of the money I have spent on my hobby for the last couple of years.  With this in mind I will share one of my more recent painting.

It is not one of my favorite pictures but it is unique with the oval shape. I used contact paper to create the oval shape and then painted over it and through the hole onto the canvas.  I can see that I need to touch up around the edges in places but the effect is nice.

 Practice makes perfect  click on each picture for a better view

I really had a tough time learning how to paint trees.  I thought you had to have every detail to have a great tree.  This was several of my practice sheets.  I still have days where I just can not seem to meet my expectations.  On the picture to the left please note one of my practice mountains and skies. 

When I started painting using a palette for the first time was a challenge for me and I never really got the paint removed from the surface of the plastic palette.  Using oils can be very messy for the inexperienced when mixing colors and mediums.  Thankfully I now have disposable pallets.  No clean up is necessary.  Disposable Pallets made my life so much easier since it was difficult enough to clean the brushes. 

As I look back to when I started to paint, I see how hard it was since I had little knowledge of brushes, canvases, and paints.  I purchased cheap items to get started.  I might add that oil paints are not cheap no matter what you get when you compare the prices to water color and acrylic paints. 

My trips to the local arts and craft stores taught me to snag a coupon from the paper and purchase the high priced items with a 50% off coupon and check for all sales related to painting.  Once at the store I saw novice and professional brushes and paints for each type of paint sold.  I started with oil paints.  With this I purchased all I could find for cleaning brushes and everything else I thought I needed to get started.  I also found my first books and Bob Ross DVD’s.  The price for everything quickly became expensive for a hobby I was not sure I would continue.

I purchased a lot of things I did not need and was constantly spending money.  It took me almost a year to decide what paints I really liked to use and to learn what I needed to use them to paint a picture.

I have since learned to shop online at art stores for items getting the best deals.  Researching online for videos that teach paintings online is easy and helps beginning painters.  I still use Bob Ross DVD’s but I purchase them in a collection, (sometimes used) for a much better price.

Welcome to my painting blog.  This is my journey painting pictures. Over the years I have taken classes for wood carving and basket weaving and became good at both. 
Learning to paint has been a whole new experience  I have been dabbling in oils and water colors for the past year and recently started a class in acrylics. 
I have found that talent is also part of becoming a good artist.
Below are a few of my first paintings from a Bob Ross dvd I tried to paint a barn

at the time I was very proud of this picture.

Overtime I have changed the type of paints, what I paint on, and learned that the old saying practice makes perfect is very true.

One of paintings from about 4 months ago

This is a modified Bob Ross painting.  I am doing things my way