Artistic Crisis

I have been going through an artistic crisis.  In my artistic journey, which encompasses most of my life, I have tried to become an oil painter.  I have always admired the old masters and, of course, dreamed of becoming like them.  As I have gotten older I have realized that I will never get close and, because I could not create work like theirs, I drifted away from oils and became afraid of them.  I still sneakily tried them every once in a while and gave up and ran from them.  LOL!  Silly, I know.  Well, with this latest commission, my client initially asked me to do the paintings of the houses in oils and I said, “NO!  Oh, no!  Can’t do it.  No, no, no.”  So, he agreed to acrylics.  Well, for the last two weeks I have been dwelling on oils and trying to resist the drive to go to oils.  I contacted my client and we discussed it and he has agreed to allow me to try to do painting number seven with oils.  I started it with acrylics and after getting the sky in I was unable to get anything else done on it.  I tried.  It was a mess.  I started another panel and made a mess of it.  Finally, I realized that I need to use oils.  SO…  I am doing a few practice oil paintings before starting house number seven.  Here is my first practice painting:

I just need to get a feel for the paint and I need to figure out how to make the painting dry quicker.  It is possible with different mediums and solvents.  But, I also want to make it as toxin-free as possible.  Well, I am off on another adventure and challenge.  It is a bumpy road, for sure!  LOL!

Talk doesn’t cook rice. ~Chinese Proverb