I want to paint for a living. Welcome to my first post.

Hello everyone!

My name is James and I am an artist living in Devon, England, hoping one day to have a full time career as a painter.

I am basically self taught and started out with portraiture before moving on to landscapes, although I enjoy a range of subjects, my main interest is the development of colour, composition and the tactile nature of a traditional painting (especially oils) or drawing, more than specific subjects themselves.

I'm really excited about the future of Steemit and what it can do for creators like me.

I hope, one day, platforms like this can bring the art world back to a more even playing field where communities like ours can empower artists by showing their appreciation for the art they enjoy, instead of being dictated to, by an elite few, the value of artwork, simply to manipulate markets for their own gain.

The idea of decentralized currency is very exciting and there is no reason why the same can't happen in the art world for exactly the same reasons that it is happening in banking and other industries.

But, for now, I keep art as a hobby and work a day job to support myself. I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me some free time to paint, not everyone can say this.

My aim is to update with new work and works in progress and also to contribute my experience and knowledge on drawing and painting with free lessons and tutorials.

I'm very excited by the opportunities presented in this new era of technology and hope that this is the gateway for me and others like me, to paint full time while earning enough money to do so.

If you have up-voted me or shared my work, thank you! You are helping me to achieve my dream of being a full time artist and I sincerely thank you and hope you are rewarded 10 fold in return.

Here is a recent peice I painted on location near my home. It was right before some bad weather and the wind tried to blow my easel over. I held the easel with one had while painting with the other. These are the challenges of plein air painting and they can often contribute a fresher and more lively effect to the end result.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

This is oil on board and, because my discovery of Steemit is very recent, both images in this post have already been featured on fb, my website, instagram and twitter