DOGS on WOOD

 

Sometimes  I get things out of the trash. Sometimes I secretly stalk said trash piles while waiting for things to get thrown away. You see, there is a house in our neighborhood being constructed. I waited until they  had a clear trash area and looted their tiny wood scrap end pieces.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with them. I had my oil paint out for a another project and decided to do some quirky dog portraits after sanding and staining them. This was the first time I’d used oils since  like high school. mine were glumpy and required wrenching the lids open/ dissecting them with scissors just to get the paint out.

That was only the beginning of my frustrations. For starters I only had three brushes for oil and they were all very large. getting details with the chunky mess was next to impossible. Next was my blundering through mixing colors. Because you cant refresh the turpentine as often as water, I felt like I’d muddy everything in the blink of an eye.

I am basically sold on acrylic painting. While oils have such a bendable and richness, I’m much more in favor of paint that doesn’t fight back at me. I also have stained hands now due to a burst tube of green and my incompetence at cleaning oil based products out of skin. Also the smell makes your throat burn and your eyes water. How people do this indoors is beyond me.

I have a ways to go and a lot more wood but I hope to add some more layers to the oils after about a week.