You face a blank canvas, you pick up a brush, dip it in colour and make a shape on that white field in front of you. At that moment you join an age-old line of painters, famous and obscure, dating back before the 15th Century. The greats, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Van Gogh to Picasso worked in oil paints. Acrylics were introduced in the 1950s, and the bold Colour Field artists made good use of the modern medium.
The main practical difference between acrylics and oil paints is the drying time. With acrylics your strokes are set almost immediately. Oils dry slowly, allowing time to blend and work the paint throughout an entire session.
Whether you'll be painting en plein air or in the studio, you'll need tubes of paint in basic colours, a palette, a set of various-sized brushes, a palette knife, canvas by the roll, or pre-stretched canvas. Oil paint requires a mixing medium like linseed oil, a solvent like turpentine or odourless paint thinner, and a varnish medium for glazing. For acrylics, you need only water as a mixing medium, though retarders and gloss or matt medium is often used to extend the working time of the paint. You might use a studio easel if you're indoors, or if you're painting outdoors en plein air, you may get your own portable French easel, or use one that your instructor supplies.
If you're attending a class or a course for the first time, you may find that some of the materials and equipment are supplied, so don't go out and buy a lot of things until you find out what you need. Instructors usually have a materials list of what is supplied and what you need to bring. Make sure you ask about this before the course. In any case, you'll want 'painting clothes' which can be spattered, and a hat to shield you from the sun.
If you're like most newcomers you'll have questions like these: 'Can I paint if I'm no good at drawing?' 'Could I do better with oils or acrylics than I did with watercolours?' 'Will I be the only one with questions?' But don't worry. Everyone in the workshop will be having a learning experience - including the instructor!
Your first step will be to learn about colour, because in painting you will be using colour to build the structure of your chosen subject in lights and darks. Some instructors will start you off with a limited palette, which teaches you how to use colour to push space back and bring it forward. Some methods will seem counter-intuitive at first, but you'll get the hang of it.
Early on, you'll be learning 'to see' what composes your chosen scene, outdoors or in the studio-flowers, a person, a building, a pastoral landscape. You'll learn to break down your subject into shapes, and use colour to express depth, line to express movement. You'll feel some kind of emotion in your scene-that's your 'poetic sense'-and you'll express it in the way you portray it. You may take away several canvases from the class to finish at home, using memory or a photo of your scene.
As you develop, and have several successful paintings, you may move on to a student show. You might go on to juried shows and exhibitions where people will buy your paintings!
Maybe the best foundation for the neophyte is the example of the great painters that came before you. Visit museums, and look through good-quality art books. For reference as you work and develop, you should have The Artist's Handbook by Ralph Mayer.
You'll make many mistakes, but stay with it. As Dégas said, 'Painting is the sum total of all correction'.
Marcia Mitchell runs art courses in France: www.personalprovence.com
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