Painting a Picture can be Relaxing

Sorry no blog this week I spent the time painting a picture. The rest of this paragraph is just me rambling about trying watercolors for the first time. I like to paint pictures when I can find the time, over the last year I have only taken the time to paint two pictures. I am by no means a professional only a self-taught amateur, but that is fine for me. My goal is to take my mind off of items that cause stress.  I really should try to find time to paint more pictures as painting can be good therapy, which produces a relaxing calming effect.  About two years ago I started painting with oil paints and then tried Acrylic and went back to water base oil paint, which was much easier to clean. I like the landscape layering techniques you can achieve with oil paints.  The other day I saw water color paints on clearance at Michaels, so I said; “what the heck I never tried this medium before.”   I pulled out a 9 by 12 canvas and attempted to see how close I could get to oil painting techniques I was used to.  I was worried about the softer colors and how much depth I could achieve.  I started experimenting with a simple landscape a few trees, grassy hills, and water.  No reflections or shading just kept it simple.  Some of the trees didn’t turn out very well especially the pines, and the water has the look of ice in the winter. I really wasn’t going for that look, but I was just playing around. Overall I was satisfied with the ability to make it close to an oil painting. The cleanup was simple, which makes this a good alternate to use while traveling. Couple more practice trials I think I will be ready for a planned picture using water colors. If you never tried painting a picture before you should give it a try. Start with a simple sky and a grassy hill.

May this find you well and happy, God Bless