In The Studio- Oil Paint Stole My Heart

by on June 22, 2015
In The Studio - Oil Paint Stole My Heart When a single moment can change the rest of your life.

When I was 14 years old my mom enrolled me in my first oil painting class at the Kansas City Art Institute. I loved painting, drawing, and making any type of art that I could. I was already very serious about wanting to learn and create more. My high school classes just were not enough for me. I had such a passion that I was dieing to paint as much as I could.

So, my Dad bought be my first set of oil paints. It was the cutest little blue, art box, stocked of all kinds of colors. I remember the brand of paint was mostly Liquitex. It had a very distinct smell unlike any other brand of paint. The smell today takes me back down memory lane. I was so excited the first day of class at an art school, that I could not wait to dig into that box, and paint something beautiful!

Well, the first class did not go quite as well as I hoped. The paintings were not as brilliant as I imagined. We started with painting a nude model, and let's just say I was not quite inspired my the human body at 14 years old. ha ha ha! But, I learned so much. My teacher taught me the basic fundamentals of how to oil paint. He taught me to see colors, and how to mix them. He showed me to paint loose and not get caught up in the details. If only I would have realized that this was the foundation that my art practice would be built upon. Not only did I learn about the tools that I would use. But, I started to learn how to see and translate that into a painting.

In this class, in the moment of creating artwork with these new and wonderful foreign materials, I was in heaven. Oil paint stole my heart! Looking back now I see how life changing that one class was, with that first box of paints. You never know when a small moment might have a powerful impact on the rest of your life.

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