I am learning to oil paint.

You won’t hear me call myself an artist, but you will hear me call myself a painter, because that’s what I do.

I am a student of painting.

I believe my story is worth telling.

Where do I even begin?

Here’s the thing. I’m going to have to start from the very beginning, even though that beginning is not really the reason behind this. But I have to go to that beginning to really explain what’s going on in my head.

I've always loved painting. Even though I was never good at art or anything artistic.

When I was really little, Mom would buy little water color kits for me from the grocery store. I loved that.

Right from the time I was in Kindergarten, I loved art projects. I always felt exhilarated as the teacher would explain the project and pass out the supplies. I always wondered if this time I would create something wonderful.

I remember one occasion in the sixth grade. I don’t remember what we painted or created. I don’t remember what the media was. It was pastels or colored pencils or something.

What I do remember is having everyone in the class “ooh and ahh” at my work and passing it around for everyone to see.

The next time I was involved with art in school was jr. high school. The eighth grade. I took an art class.

Again, I don’t remember specific class projects, but I do remember hoping that something amazing would come out of it. I remember drawing some cowboys lounging in front of a cave hideout.

After my 8^th grade art class, I had no exposure of any kind to art instruction or hobbies.

At least in practice.

But here’s the thing:

I’ve ALWAYS been a painter in my heart.

I love art history.  I love everything about painting, and l love to see and study all kinds of paintings.

I love sculpture too. My favorite books about art have been the works of Irving Stone, especially “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, and “Lust for Life”. I have opinions about the works of Irvine Stone that we’ll talk about later.

I said before that I love all paintings, but I especially love paintings done in oil. I love the classics, I love the impressionists.

I have strong opinions about many painters and painting styles that I will express openly and candidly in this blog and I accept that my opinions may be controversial, and even wrong. Some of my opinions may be the result of ignorance. In that case, we may see some of my opinions change over time during this blog.

In my next entry, I’m going to continue into the story of why and how I got started with oil painting, but for now I’m going to share one of the first paintings I executed that didn’t look like complete failure to me.

It was done on Masonite board.