Beginnings

Many of you know that I am a painter, and primarily a watercolorist. I have decided to give you a little history on how I came to like art. I believe one or two people know the basics of the story, but even they haven't heard it in much detail.

When I first learned to read, I didn't like it at all, believe it or not. It was something I had to do to survive, nothing more. No pleasure. Then, after a year or two, my mother went to the library in an attempt to get me into reading. She discovered the Sheltie the Shetland Pony series by Anna Hodson.

She asked me to try them, and me, being a little five year-old kid, was certain I was NOT going to like this book that my mom brought home no matter what it was like. Yeah, you probably guessed it already, but I fell head over heels in love with this series, reading, and horses.

Then, two years later, I was reading any and every book about horses I could get my hands on. Next came the Heartland series by Lauren Brooke. Now I wanted to draw horses. I got a couple books from the library, and began to practice.

Then the Thoroughbred series by Jeanne Campbell, and finally The Black Stallion series by Walter and Stephen Farley. Thus was born my attachment to thoroughbred racing. I started drawing off of racehorses' pictures that I found online, in books from the library, in our set of Encyclopedias. Especially if they had anything to do with the Kentucky Derby.*

Following that came the color with simple Crayola crayons that I got for Christmas '08. Colored pencils came around that time too, and I would do outlines with ballpoint pen. At this time, the only focus remained on horses except for the other subjects required for art assignments.

Now we get into the more serious era. My Christmas list for '12 was completely made up of art supplies from my favorite store, Michaels. *nodnod* Watercolor pencils, paintbrushes, canvas paper, acrylic paints, erasers, pencils, the like.

I took a class at the Art Academy, where I painted with watercolors and ink for the first time, last summer. It wasn't a challenging task, for there was basically only one color over the whole inked painting, but it was a start.

Then in a spring semester watercolor class at a co-op just last year, I started doing landscapes and other animals. That teacher brought me to a new level that I thought I would never attain. That class was so tiny, that each of us eight students got full attention for an hour and a half each session.

Less then two months ago, I completed a semester-long Painting 1 course at my new school. I didn't like being graded on something that I felt I should be able to do just for pleasure. Just like everything, however, there were good things about it. One was the way my teacher challenged me to learn about other artists, and the techniques they used to be successful.

And that pretty much drops me off where I am now. Looking back over the years, it's funny how much your expectations for your artwork heightens over time.

That was a bit more than a short story, but thanks to those of you who do take the time to read this.

*The Derby is an annual horse race held for the best three year-olds. More information can be found here. There will be a post about it on this blog come late April or very early May.