Thistle do for now...

Backblipped 19.10.21


David was up and off on his golfing trip early morning.  The rain was pelting down when he left and he was heading to the west coast!  Hoping the weather was better there and improves for the rest of the week otherwise there are going to be some very soggy golfers!

I had my day planned, well my week actually, but the fact I am backblipping is testament to said plans not panning out quite how I hoped.  Nothing major, just the day just ran away with me!  Got a lot on over the next wee while and it's only when I started thinking about what needs to be done that I realised I may have bitten off more than I can chew....and I can chew a lot!  :-))

In other news, I used the money I made from the recent sale of four paintings to invest in new supplies.  

The notion to have a go at painting with acrylics has been slowly building in me for a few months and I had thought about asking Santa (assuming I had been good enough :-) to bring me some acrylic paint and canvases for Christmas, but the money was burning a hole the creative urge became so great I succumbed early and bought some student grade paints, some canvases, an acrylic pad and some brushes.

I sought advice from Rochelle and Gail, two artists I know who paint using acrylics, and they both told me to go for it and gave me invaluable advice on materials for starting out and moving on once I have a bit of practice under my belt.

The paints arrived just over a week ago and I have been looking longingly at them ever since, not quite plucking up the courage to delve in!

I've never painted with acrylics before and after two years of fully immersing myself in watercolour and re-training my brain and hand to paint light to dark, it's a bit of a mind f*ck to leave that behind and accept the freedoms that come with acrylic.  

Over the weekend I could resist no longer and decided to paint something I've painted loads of times before in watercolour...a thistle.  

I set up my wet palette, chose my colours and brushes and decided to use paper designed for acrylic paint rather than ruin a canvas.  And this is the result.  My very first acrylic painting!

I am putting it in my journal so I can hopefully look back on it in the not too distant future and be able to see I am making huge improvements on this! 

There are many things wrong with this painting.  I won't bore you with the list!  The good thing is I know what they are and I will  learn how to fix them.  

The best thing though is the fun I had creating it.  The colours and thickness of the paint, then beautiful marbling as I mixed them, the buttery slickness of the paint, the feel of the palette knife as it skimmed across the surface of the paper and the absolute joy of being able to paint over bits again and again, adding highlights at the end! 

Oh I think me and acrylic painting are going to get on just fine :-)))