Under thirty minutes of brush time to do this. I figured that because from start to finish I listened to Dust in the wind by Kansas 3 times, then Play the game tonight which each run about three minutes and twenty seconds before I moved on to Don’t close your eyes by Kix which is a bit over four minutes… and finally I finished the painting while listening to Caught up in you by 38 special. Those were all on the recommended next list on YouTube. My intention was to just listen to Dust in the wind to have the right vibe happen, but who the heck can listen to that song more than 3 times in a row?
Once I Was Then is the title. I used oil paint on a 16″ high by 20″ wide canvas. Two brushes were involved, and I didn’t clean them during the painting process… just let them be a color mixing mess. I used to be able to do this sort of thing with oils in under fifteen minutes. They also came out nicer, but I’m big time out of practice. The whole reason I did it was to see if I still could. I’ve not painted with oils since the 90’s except for a few commissions , and for those I went slow and used controlled techniques. My quick oil skills have diminished greatly. It is a bit sad. I originally was an oil painter. It is what I learned with. Oh well.
So the idea here was to do a speed type oil on canvas expressive painting exploring the reminiscent. The theme in mind was a woman recalling a time of love and passion in her more youthful years and being able to see herself to the point she can almost join in. I feel I almost captured it, and if I’d been working with acrylics (what I use primarily nowadays) I’d have captured it well. The vision I had in my mind was sound and expressed it wonderfully. The vision that came out on this canvas though only hints at it, and then only if you were looking at it with knowledge of what it was about.
I really hate this thing. The phrase use it or lose it definitely counts when applied to skills with painting mediums. Dust in the wind maybe wasn’t the best choice for mood music either.
I flipped a quarter to decide if it should go in the garbage or go on this site. Here it is and it was tails that kept it alive and made prints be available. For all I know it will be a few people’s favorite painting ever. That is one of the weird things about art. Often the more the artists hates a piece the more likely it will be some certain someone’s soul touching work of art. so…. Prints are HERE.
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