A Little Rough

Those of you who have become Facebook friends already know my exciting news. I’m going to be joining an art club. It’s a county-wide fine arts association which holds two art shows each year. I’m thrilled at the prospect of meeting new artist friends, seeing art demonstrations, and perhaps participating in the shows.

Of course, I’m still haunted by that question: Am I really an artist? I wonder if I’m really good enough to join the association. But then I remind myself that this is a wonderful opportunity to learn, grow, and make connections in the art world. Ready or not, I’m joining!

To this point, most of my oil painting has been hit-and-miss, all on my own. Maybe I should learn a few oil painting techniques, I decided, and so, I’ve been hitting the books.

I’ve learned a lot about brushstrokes, blending, scumbling, cross-hatching, and using palette knives to apply paint. I’ve done it before when painting mountains, but that was just as a way of highlighting areas. I’d never tried doing a complete painting with a palette knife.

How did it turn out? A bit rough, but as Dawn from Brush of Dawn reminds me, “the rougher, the better”.

 

Palette Knife Tree — Oil on 9 x 12 Canvas Panel

Over the last few weeks, I really have been learning a lot, and as I post additional paintings, I hope you’ll see the improvements I’m making.

 

I’ll never be a wizard with a palette knife, but the “lightning-struck tree” — that’s what it reminded me of — was a lot of fun to paint. And, really, isn’t that what true art should be about? It should be about doing what we love, and loving what we do!