NEWTS #4: Oil Painting

For my grandma’s 80th birthday, we rented a place in Norfolk for a mini family reunion (that’s why I haven’t blogged in a while). Norfolk is not the most interesting place (apologies to any offended), but it is quite scenic. So on my way to a shopping trip, out of nowhere, I decided my challenge of the week was to have a go at painting a beautiful landscape ! I’ve always been a fan of sketching and I’ve done a few pieces on the side but I haven’t done much with paints at all.

The first thing to do was to decide what kind of paints I wanted to use. I went to an art shop and was immediately drawn to oil paints. However, being the thorough person I am, I messaged my super artistic friend asking for advice. I asked her to help me choose between acrylics, watercolour and oil paints and she was great (thanks Lucy) ! Skip forward to that evening and I’d ordered my oil painting starter kit and some turp off amazon !

Once we got to Norfolk, I decided to start with a mini practice piece of Teriyaki (my hamster). I know painting animals is nothing like painting landscapes but I love him too much not to paint him ! I also love drawing/painting eyes. Here’s how it turned out:

I was quite happy with that, so the next day I went ahead and started the landscape. I chose a beautiful view of the broad (not a lake, as my grandparents constantly reminded me) from a jetty in the back garden. I started while it was cloudy but I painted using the colours that showed when the sun came out. It was really tricky to get all the colours right. I found painting this landscape hard. The trees and sky were okay then it all went downhill after that. Apart from Seb the swan – I’m quite proud of him ! The lily pads were really tough, the reeds were difficult and the current on the water (due to wind) was hard to grasp. I also didn’t have time to finish it because family time had to happen and I couldn’t just stay on the jetty without socialising. I’m really not pleased with this second painting and I kinda hate posting it on here but I know I shouldn’t care so much – that’s why I am posting it.

The lake (I don’t care if it’s technically a broad – looks like a lake to me !).

My version of the lake.

All in all I loved oil painting because it ignited my creative side a bit, which I’ve been unconsciously suppressing for a while. I still have some paint leftover so I may experiment with it a bit more. However, oil painting is a lot of effort and takes forever to dry, so I might go back to sketching for a bit and go from there !

Olive

Here are some extra photos of me in action:

Me, painting on the jetty.

My little sister’s hilarious snapchat of me.