What A Wonderful Art World

One of My Oil Pastels from 2008

What if.

What if I switch back and forth between or among various painterly  mediums? That may be ridiculous for a painter to do, but I do it, and it keeps me interested, entertained, and relevant, I think. Perhaps I may never “master” any one medium, or maybe I will master all of them, but if you don’t try, you will never know.

What I mean by that is, how would you ever know that pastels (for example) is the medium in which you will excel if you have never painted with pastels? Simple, you wouldn’t, and that’s the point.

Recently I have gone back and forth between acrylic and watercolor. I found that when I was painting exclusively with acrylic, I was slowly forgetting how to paint with watercolor. Not every single thing, of course, but I was forgetting some of the unique things about watercolor, and how to achieve them, that make it so popular (and respected).

I didn’t want to forget. In fact, I don’t want to forget anything about any of the mediums in which I have painted—and that includes oil, acrylic, watercolor, and, yes, pastels, even oil pastels. However, not forgetting is not very realistic, so I am compelled to venture from one painting medium to the other.

In a perfect painter’s world, I would move effortlessly among mediums on any given day, rendering my art just as I imagined it. I would paint with boldness and determination in acrylic and with rose petal softness in watercolor. I would capture light and shadow perfectly in my oil paintings, and I would render the texture of velvet in my pastels.

In my dreams, of course, but as the song title says, ”What a Wonderful World.”

Happy Painting!