Me and my Frenemy

Thanks to the upcoming "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge I'm going to extend the olive branch of forgiveness to my old frenemy, oil paints.  When I was 10 years old my parents gave me a fantastic oil painting kit (the adult version no less!) and I struggled for years trying to master the medium.  Though I managed to notice the wonderful blending qualities and amazing color options immediately, I fought with the drying time before finally waving the white flag to turn to watercolors and acrylics.

I tried taking a class in college which ended badly because I didn't mesh with the teacher's requirement of painting flowers each and every single lesson.  I tried once again after noticing an artist using them on top of their acrylics (what??!!) and managed to ruin every single painting because of my severe lack of patience.

Earlier this year a dear friend of mine lost her husband who had been an amazing artist.  While I was helping her clear some things out, she decided she wanted to redecorate her house and commissioned me to paint a very large painting to go on a huge family room wall.  Part of the deal we struck included my taking her husband's oil paints and brushes, which until now had gathered dust in my studio.

So when trying to decide what to do for the upcoming art event, I decided to REALLY challenge myself and work with Larry's oil paints.  What better way to get over the love/hate relationship than to stare at it day after day for a month?

So here are a couple of studies I painted in preparation for the upcoming challenge which begins January 1, 2015.   I'm planning to do a mix of non-objective abstracts (to work with color and composition) and abstract landscapes using Larry's top quality paints and brushes.

Each morning I'll be posting the latest painting on this blog and uploading them to my ETSY stores, Creative Soul Revival and The Beachy Boutique.  The beach scenes will be in the latter store while abstracts and non-beach related landscapes will be for sale in Creative Soul Revival.

This will be my 4th "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge and I'm looking forward to kicking off the New year with it.  There is something exciting about creating something each and every day for 30 days, and I want to get a cohesive line of work to show on my new website that is being worked on that will be strictly for my art.

Here's to making friends with my old enemy - may we overcome our issues and become the true friends I had hoped we would be when I first met you on my 10th birthday.   And may I channel a lot of Larry's talent and patience in the process!