As time went by, a picture was shown to me, and I was asked "Why can't you paint that to decorate the house?" My answer was "Cause I never tried to paint!"

So, into my next 'keep out of trouble project'....I bought some art books on oil painting. You know the kind, I'm sure....They tell you what you need as far as materials and colors go and brushes. They even have a VERY ruff sketch of a painting to guide you in making the Proportionate sizes of what is to be painted and with book in hand and a ruff sketch....Somehow I finished my first painting of a "Barn in Winter".

It's not that it is great or anything like that, but it was my first and I liked it well enough to hang it on the wall!

Now I was really encouraged! So I went deeper and ended up painting every picture in the book. When I got offers of people wanting to BUY my paintings, I went into shock! Then went even further! I hung every one of them up in the house.

There were a few different techniques used, all a good learning experience! But I wanted more! I was watching TV when I ran into Bob Ross. He paints a totally different way!!! and completes a whole picture within a 30 minute TV show on PBS. He has funny 'fluffy curly hair' and talks about painting 'happy little trees'. After watching a few weeks, I found some of his books and bought one. Now his books are a lot different! In them he does NOT give you a sketch...just a tiny little picture and a list of the colors you need. He describes all the 'techniques used for a painting'within a single page. I tried it! A couple of times! The first one I did I call "Northern Lights" and the next was "Stormy Night".

I have painted a group of three "Wild Flowers" that hang nicely in my bedroom and seem to all compliment each other, with their combinations of flowers and colors.

I really like painting! I just need space to do it! I will have the space if the storage building I have is ever assembled. Trying to get free help for labor these days is next to impossible! LOL!!

I am not really as talented as I would like to be! I would love to be able to totally paint my 'own pictures'. I would need a LOT of help with dimensional sizes so a wheel on an old wagon is not bigger than the wagon. I have taken several photos of different old barns (to continue the theme) and tried to sketch them but so far I haven't come up with anything that seems to have the right proportions. So until I learn how to do that, I will just have to borrow suggestions from art instruction books.