the self-taught artist

Interwebs recess over! It was a sad excuse for a break, actually; I did a lot of lurking. In any case, I did start Christmas shopping and going to the gym again and did everything on my To Do list except finish my book. The best thing was finally, with some trepidation, uncapping my new tubes of oil paint last week. Oil paints are a very yin-yang thing. They are very sensuous to use and I was thrilled once again by their luscious texture, amazing coverage, luminous colours, etc. They're just plain fun to paint with. But then there's the lingering odour (which I quite like -- it's the idea of their toxicity that bothers me), messy cleanup, stained fingers, etc. For some reason I can paint very cleanly with acrylics but I get oil paints all over me! It's almost like I revisit childhood finger painting.

That said, I was very careful at first. I wanted to get a feel for it without wasting too much time and paint, so I started with an acrylic underpainting on an 8" x 8" panel to illustrate the RH Blyth quote, "Art is frozen zen". I then proceeded as if I were still painting in acrylic so I could test the differences from a place of familiarity. As you can see, the result is similar but it sure felt different! Next, I did a Stories painting on panel the same way. As I was working it occurred to me that eight years of using only acrylic paint was a useful education. Acrylic is surprisingly different from oil, and because of the fast drying time, lack of body and other properties, I learned techniques that create a sort of freshness that I hope to also be able to achieve with oil paint, though in a medium with a more luminous surface. Real experiments to come!

Speaking of experimenting, I also started thinking about the whole 'self-taught artist' thing. I'm one of those people who think all artists are self taught, unless they go to a technical school that focuses on commercial and design techniques. As a recipient of a university BFA, I learned very little of practical value beyond how to build/stretch my own canvases. I had one amazing teacher who was able to guide me in such a way that I orchestrated my own creative breakthrough, but most of my studio classes consisted of following vague directions and working out the technical aspects for myself. The real learning came many, many years later when I decided to quit my job, paint the walls of my basement, set up an easel and start noodling away in solitude. And like any self-respecting self-taught artist, the more I learn the less I know.