In March of '22, I bought a Jenna Rainey book. The two paintings above were my very first two paintings based on the guidance in that book. I painted it in a little, and very cheap, sketchbook with a little set of Winsor & Newton Cotman paints. I hadn't done any sort of art in almost 50 years, and although these little paintings aren't much of anything, I can't describe how it made me feel afterward. My brain neurons were firing up and excited about this new adventure! I had always liked watercolor paintings, so I thought I'd give it a shot, ignorant of the fact that this medium is one of the most difficult to learn and master! It's best I didn't know that as I probably wouldn't have attempted it, but ignorance truly is bliss, haha.

I enjoyed painting flowers, but I also love the great outdoors and before I knew it, I found Paul Clark on YouTube and started painting landscapes. Below is my first Paul Clark painting. It was painted on really poor quality paper, with student grade paints, but I was so happy with it back in '22, lol. But looking at it now, all I can think is, "I need to try this one again!" 

In June of 2022, I took the most important step of my art journey: I joined Skillshare. This has enabled me to greatly improve my skills, although I still know I need continual practice. One of my first paintings was the little dog, shown below, which was in a Jane Davies class. I loved her free flow technique, but I was VERY heavy-handed with the paint! I certainly hadn't embraced any "less is more" approach, lol. This was another painting I always wanted to paint again. So, three years later, I did. I can see a pretty big improvement which encourages me and makes me a little proud that I stuck it out with this medium for three years. I also love seeing other artists' journeys on Skillshare and see their improvement as well. I love this community so much.

March - '22 - (shown above)

March - '25 

My goal is to add at least 2 paintings to a sketchbook each week, starting with documenting our recent vacation to northern California and the Oregon coast. The beauty we saw there was incredible (including a picture below), and I look forward to painting several of the pictures from this trip. 

As far as sharing any advice and tips, for me, the most important tip for improving is to take classes, and ideally ones where you can pause, rewind, replay, etc., which coincidentally are exactly the types of classes found on Skillshare. And don't get discouraged when you ultimately toss some paintings in the bin - we all have to start somewhere!