Throwback Thursday #3 - My first experiments with oils (2002)

I thought I'd show you my first few attempts at using oil paints. These were all from around 2002, when I had just enrolled in a 10 week beginners art class at St Helen's college.

To be clear, I didn't consider myself a beginner! Up until that point I'd only ever been taught art at school up until I was 16. Apart from that I was self taught and had been drawing and using acrylics for an number of years. But I had no experience with oils or watercolours and felt I needed some basic tuition.

At about this time I was employed part-time as a sculptor (more on that in another post sometime) and was also taking life drawing classes in the evenings to improve my sculpting. The painting class was just for personal enjoyment at the time.

The other day I was sorting through some of my files and discovered a couple of my first attempts with oils from this class - thought it might be interesting to show and see what you guys think?

Painting from a photo of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul

Island on lake Keswick, Lake District, UK

Painting of Island on Lake Keswick, Lake District, UK

I loved the experience of using these paints but sadly it was too expensive for me to carry on with them after the classes finished. I simply couldn't afford all the gear so I continued with acrylics. I would love to get back into oils and have another play with them some day - their slow drying and different texture offers a lot of possibilities that are harder to achieve with acrylics.

However, on the minus side, I only have a little studio and not enough space to have lots of oil paintings drying. We'll have to see how it goes...but I'm definitely going to start up with them again!

Let me know which is your favourite!
Adam