Art

It really started with some Christmas decorations.

I found some unpainted plaster cast decorations in the local dollar store and thought that painting them would make a great Christmas project and continue my tradition. Ever since childhood I would usually end my crafting year with a Christmas craft project. I also bought a small set of cheap student acrylic paints and got stuck in.

I really enjoyed it and I was surprised at my results. I never considered I could possibly be good at painting as it always seemed too much the reserve of "real" artists. My experience with painting was limited to Reeves poster paint powder that I loved using as a child that I grew out of and saw more as a child's paint medium.

Heartened by my success with the decorations, I started playing with painting pictures and my first attempt was a still life of a green bottle. When I was done, I couldn't believe that I had actually painted it - it looked like something by a real artist.

I had tinkered with pencil drawing and pastels over the years but had always been disappointed by the results. My father was a mechanical engineer and he drew highly technical drawings for a living and I fear his demanding perfectionism may have lead me to believe that I was no good. I remember him telling me that real artists didn't need to use rulers and that doing so was "cheating".

A pastel work of Table Mountain in South Africa from years ago.
(I "copied" it from a photo so felt it didn't count as real art
as I had "cheated")

With painting however, it seemed like some imperfection was allowed. After all, often a painting is more an impression than a realistic representation and I loved the way the act of painting absorbed me and I lost track of time and escaped my worries.

And so, I started teaching myself painting, and then drawing, techniques from library books and Bob Davies' DVD sets. Bob's course was brilliant and my art definitely started to improve with each piece I did.

I was thrilled when he launched his website, ArtTutor. I quickly became a member and I haven't looked back. It's a fantastic resource with hundreds of lessons that members can watch online as many times as they want. Thanks to the guidance I got from Bob Davies' courses and ArtTutor, I'm starting to think of myself as something of an artist and starting to see new opportunities for my future. A creative future! I don't want to work, I want to create!

My biggest accomplishment so far, a painting I did as a gift for my father on his 75th birthday, from a black and white photograph he took in his youth.

And look at my drawing now! Can you believe I did this freehand?! I can't!

Have a look at more of my artwork in my ArtTutor gallery.