A New Hobby

When I was a teenager I remember watching an old guy on TV paint beautiful landscapes with what looked like, regular house painting brushes. I always wanted to try it. His name was Bill Alexander and you can find his old show on YouTube. Their motto is "You can paint, we promise". A few years later another guy with an afro hairdo had a TV show doing the same type of painting (he was a student of Bills). That was Bob Ross. Since Darryl and I had a lot of time on our hands we decided to get creative and try our hand(s) at oil painting, painting along with Bill and Bob on YouTube and Netflix. 

Darryl practicing with Bob.

We soon learned that the little aluminum table top easel doesn't work too well, so I bought Darryl a Painter's Easel for his birthday. 

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This is my very fist oil painting. I see so many mistakes, but Darryl wanted me to keep it to have a comparison for future art work. 

Working on Painting #2.

As I continued to paint I realized that when I looked at the world around me I started seeing things in Light and dark, subtle shadows and highlights. I actually payed attention to the way the sun shines on things.

Some of my paintings are okay, most, like the one below, are lessons in technique and patience and end up getting scraped off and the canvas re-used another day.

Just an autumn scene on the river.

My first attempt at a seascape had it's problems, but I loved my sky. 

This was Darryl's second painting. 

Remember my very first oil painting?

Well, I decided to try it again and I think it turned out much better.

I still have so much to learn, but I am having a wonderful time learning a little here, a little there. 

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On the painting below, I messed up the mountains so badly that I decided to just practice trees and reflections on the canvas before I scraped it off.

  

I tried the seascape again.... nope... still didn't get it right. I'll keep trying.

My little woodland path turned out nicely and I like how the frame enhances it. 

I have a long way to go when it comes to flowers. Man... they are hard.

Tried to paint a little cabin like we lived in out in Carbon, Indiana. So much to do over, not enough light source or reflection... But it is always fun to try and something about painting and creating is so relaxing for me.

Sunlight on the meadow. This is my favorite.

I am gaining a whole new appreciation for what framing can do for a picture. 

Well, that's all the damage we've done for now. We'll keep you posted if we paint anything worthy of posting after this. Now go get some paints and try it!