I'm a Want-To-Be Artist

I did take art in high school. I even won a blue ribbon at the Kiwanis Art Show back in high school (Jackson, CA). Actually, I never entered the art show and didn't know about it until my teacher told me I won. He had entered one of my paintings without telling me. I didn't know what I was doing. Some things turned out well, others stunk..perspective off, colors wrong, etc. I gave it up.

I returned to an adult art class as an escape from my children, an excuse to be by myself and other adults. You have to get away or you get that baby talk accent. My vocabulary had dwindled to just words only young children understand.

I painted an oil landscape in that class that I thought had turned out really pretty. Waterfall, lake, mountains, oaks. Everyone in class was ooohhhing and awing. It felt good! The county fair (San Joaquin) was coming up so I entered it. Nothing, just a participant ribbon. That was a downer, ha. I kept my paintings with me all these years. They are wrapped up in brown paper and taped with duct tape going from move to move and stored in the attic.

I did take a look at that landscape a couple of years ago. You see it in a different light after several years. Ok, something isn't right with that waterfall. I barely had the money to buy the paint and pay for the classes. I bought the cheapest frame I could find and made the mat for it. It looked like it, but at the time I thought it looked good. Time can remove those rose-colored glasses.

Now I'm finding myself wanting to paint again, it makes me happy. I know good artists have spent years studying color theory, perspective, composition and the like. I'm only looking to fill some of my walls with some real paintings, not prints or giclees. Just something with the right colors and subjects.

I have boxes of stencil and craft acrylics but they don't contain enough pigments. I bought a beginners kit of artist acrylics and found out, after reading about acrylics online, that 4 of the tubes were of the toxic nature. I threw those away and went back to the store and bought the safe substitutes for those, 3 books, canvas boards and stretched canvases, palette knife and a bunch more colors and brushes. I was flabbergast at the cost. I think I could have bought a painting at a gallery for that! But it is something I like to do and it would make me feel really good if I could paint something I liked enough to hang on my wall. Maybe it is an escape or maybe an excuse to do something different. My house is never going to get done!