I am not an artist....

But: I paint pictures.
When I started painting a few years ago, remembering my efforts as a lad, I began with water colours, took to acrylics and eventually took up oils. I discovered water mixable oil paints and started off with them rather timorously treating the water part of them like water colours and acrylic paint. The result was, shall we say "Okay" but a bit weak. I tended to work as apologetically, as if I was encroaching on the areas real artists work in and my work was dull.

That was, dull until I went to Amsterdam and visited the Van Gogh museum and gallery.

I returned from that experience with confidence and began to work again. I talked with my now departed friend, Bob Collins, who nodded and smiled, and gave me some ideas and encouragement. 'Slap it on but be positive and paint what is in your mind. What you see and what others see is different but the same,' he said to me. I understood that because he was the best water colour artist I have ever met, and was not inclined to butter me up.

The result was that I painted some local views and let my feelings for the mood of the day influence my paintings. Okay, so I just painted what I saw and then I learned how to use the oil paint. The painting, The Bridleway, has the elements of Van Gogh's wheat field painting, a touch of Provence in the format and the bold extravagance of his brushwork.

As you can see the painting has the elements of Van Gogh's style and I make no apologies for the similarities.

The technique was, first outline the scene in light colours such as the sky area, the track and the wheat fields.  This was done by mixing the basic colour, yellow ochre for the fields, light blue for the sky and a grey blue for the track using water to thin the paint as well as the linseed oil and medium. Let it touch dry and then start, first with the sky using only the oil and medium, adding the fields with red, yellow and white. Detail was added as the heavy paint was drying to allow it to key into the main painting.

The next painting was much bolder. The basic colour was washed on using water as the thinner, again allowed to dry and then using medium and oil with the colour lay it on thick. This time I had drawn the flower on to a sheet of paper, traced it on clear tracing paper and transferred the image to the painting surface, fixed it with a spray. Initially I painted the the outline with thinned colour, added the   the trellis work plus the background foliage and the snail.

Next it was a matter of concentrating on the flower and that was done with oil and medium, and afterwards the when dry the whole was covered with three coats of clear varnish.

The third painting is a recent picture, not yet completed which I have first overpainted with an acrylic coat of white, used a heavy oil and medium coat of colour using bold brush strokes in greens as a base on which to paint a drawn and traced Dahlia bloom.

This is a work in progress and will need some more work on it when the base is dry.

What have I learned from the exercises?

Firstly not to rely too much on the water thinning but to use it when I need to help the paint to flow but mostly to paint the base colours on which to paint the main picture.

Next, to treat the paint the same as regular oil paint and be glad of its versatility.

To take care to draw the main scene and fix it, bearing in mind that if I use charcoal I can blend the dark lines in with the paint and use them as guides for the eye that will show the contrasts. I also found that working the colour by placing colour on colour and letting them blend is most satisfactory.

And lastly, not to care much what others do and think unless I can learn to use their skills.

Using water mixable oil paints is worth the effort although the colours offered are limited, but if you select the paints you need for your preferred palette you can do all that you wish. You should be prepared to buy the appropriate oil, medium and of course be aware that true oil paints will not mix, but otherwise there is no difference in response to true oil paint.

I am glad to say that I am enjoying the medium.