The smell of oils.

For those of you that might not know first hand, oil paints have a very distinct smell, unpleasant to some and a fond and meaningful aroma to others. I happen to fall into the "others" category which also just so happens to be overly convenient for me since the profession I chose to follow requires me to use paints... see definition of artist: oil painter. Today marked the first stab at oils with my newest still life creation and the color I mixed up is a beauty! I have a long way to go, mostly because of the elaborate involvement of the subject matter and textures and patterns I'm attempting... but I always love art that challenges me. I'm not ready to share visual progress just yet for this piece, so I will some pictures another day, but in the mean time you can take a look of this fun little pic of my paints that I used today: phthalo blue, viridian, titanium white - all diluted with turpenoid. I got out some galkyd lite (amber colored liquid) and didn't even use it... but before you pass judgement on my wasteful action, rest assured that I sealed it up in a "medium jar" for use another day. ;)

what a fun, artistic little picture we have here! the paint color shown above turned out a little more blue than it actually is though... it's more of a turquoise.

-Joshua Grabowski