Ahhh, The Smell Of Turps!

Christmas brought with it many wonderful things, one of them was a beautiful three drawer chest of oil paints!

Oils are something I always yearned to know more about at school and never seemed to find out. Cheap cloggy paints in tall plastic containers lined the shelves of the school art room and had a magical and most frustrating way of always turning to mud no matter which colours you mixed together. My first (and last) experience with these menacing pigments left me with scars that would keep me away from paints all through my childhood, in fact, it wasn't until 2003 that I picked a paintbrush up again unless I was applying emulsion to the walls of my home. Since then I have spent time with many different paints so I guess it was only a matter of time until oils were to be tackled.
Where to start...I knew nothing!

After much reading on the wet canvas oil forum I resolved the meaning of 'fat over lean' and concluded that the only real way I would learn anything was to simply paint. So that's what I did!
I set up a small still life and grabbed a 5x7" oil primed board and began. I decided to go straight in with the paints, no preliminary sketch just to add to the HUGE challenge before me. The purpose was not to restrict myself, to explore the paints and not become too picky.

I had so much fun, I love how the paints seem to 'live and breath' staying workable and maintaining a luxurious glisten that produces a character and beauty all of it's own.

I think I am going to really enjoy the challenge oils behold.