Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Oil Painting

Last night I finally opened up the oil paints Greg gave me eons ago, and got to work on a new painting. It’s nothing too spectacular, just a Maine landscape taken from a calendar we had at the apartment.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done any painting, especially in oils, and last weekend Danielle and I made a trip to Michaels so I could pick up all the assorted tools necessary (and so Danielle could get a few goodies of her own). I love painting in oils because it’s such a forgiving medium. My general creative strategy – in writing and visual arts - is to just get a bunch of stuff down on paper and then go back and refine things once there’s a good mess to work with. This tactic doesn’t lend itself to a medium like watercolor paints, but with oils, and to a limited degree acrylics, it gives me a chance to play around with the paints and try out new effects. Sort of a self-taught course.

I’ll see if I can post some pictures to this blog as I go.

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