"Blooming Tulips" 12 x 12 on Gesso Panel

Hey Y'all!!

I sure hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and I hope 2013 will be an artistically prosperous year

for all of you. I am starting out with fresh inspiration and a new outlook to my painting journey.

No more beating myself over the head just because my oil painting didn't meet my expectations.

Remember my little artist alter ego, Mattie Lou? She is still alive and well in me. 

But if this little girl in the picture kept it up and persevered then she is a master painter now.

I have been reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and have been intrigued by what he says about successful people. Is it talent, or hard work and practice? I am sure you know the answer to that. I am sure talent does play a part but it's hard work, and many many hours of practice---and of course a passion for the thing you are practicing.  He surmises that it takes about 10,000 hours or about 10 years to become a "master" at your craft.  I am not sure how to count my hours of painting. I have been painting in watercolor and acrylics for years but still lifes in oils are another whole thing. So I guess I have many many painting hours to go. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy the journey and realize that every painting will not be a masterpiece but it surely will help me to click off the hours of practice. Sometimes the bad painting may take a really long time because I sometimes spend hours trying to save it.  So this is my mantra for the new year: 

"The painting might be a miserable failure but 

I am just that much closer to becoming a master."

These were some beautiful red Tulips that I bought at the Fresh Market and as soon as I turned the light on them they started opening up. I didn't want them to do that but they wouldn't listen to me so this is how they were. I have been buying some pots, vases and fabric for my set ups. I know that now in my oil painting journey I need to paint strictly from life or from photos of my set up still lifes. Deciding on the objects, the composition and colors in the set up are still a huge challenge for me not to mention the painting part.