A couple months ago, I did a painting course at the local college. Learning how to paint was one of those things that eluded me back at USC so I thought, why not?
Art is hard stuff. You know those paintings at the museum that are just one solid colour? Or maybe it's a solid colour with a stripe in the middle? And you're like, what does that even mean? I could do that!
Well I used to scoff at those painters but having taken this course, I now understand how difficult it is to paint and to paint with meaning and purpose. I really wanted to paint abstractly and I thought it would be simple, you just throw some colours onto a canvas right? I found it way more complicated than that. Where should I put the colours? Does that colour go well next to that other colour? How can I splash it on with purpose? I was stressed out doing this painting below:
I think it looks really cool now but man, was it stressful to paint! I also did a painting of a picture I took about two years ago when I was in Death Valley. The sun was setting behind a mountain range and some friends were on a different peak than I was. I whipped out my camera because they were backlit but the sun, which was spreading amazing colours over the mountain and all the different peaks:
And tah dah! Here is my painting:
Ok not exactly a mirror image but close enough right? This one was much more fun to paint because acrylic paintings deal a lot with layering paints and allowing past layers to show up in the newest layers. You get this lovely texture and your colours pop more because they're showing up through all the different layers you coat the canvas with.
Yup, I'm the 21st century Picasso :)
Wow, I'm impressed! That's a sweet Death Valley photo & painting, and the abstract one is cool too. (Christie and I just went camping in Death Valley for our 2nd anniversary!) Have you done any painting before this, or is this the first time you've tried it?
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