The Use of Color in my Oil Paintings

Evening Calm
Status: sold

Many of you would be surprised that I started painting from the beginning with oil colors. I started with oil, and it is only later that I also began using acrylic, pastel, and doing sketches. For me, the whole process happened in the reverse way. Art students in art colleges would find it difficult to believe this.

Actually, what influenced me to take up oil colors first? A friend. He is a good artist, who paints regularly. He has given up his day job, supports a wife, pays mortgage for a new home, with his earnings from art. Isn't that great? He has done well enough to do all this. I admire him. He has always been my role model. I have looked up to him. Initially I was in awe of his talent. Now I admire him as an excellent fellow artist.

So I began with oil colors. Those days I was living in New Delhi, India. Due to the dry weather characteristic of New Delhi, I had a great time painting with oil. Especially because it dried so fast there due to the minimum moisture in the air. In that period, I was able to paint quite a few oil paintings, and fast too. I did not have to wait ten days between layers, for them to dry.

After relocating to Santa Barbara, California, the drying of colors has been a major issue. Initially I was frustrated that the paint took forever to dry. Then I discovered a drying agent. That helped somewhat. But I had to wait for the color to dry anyway, of course for less time.

And now I discovered acrylic colors - its quick drying effects. For places like here, acrylic is great. I'm loving it. And then, I've also been trying my hand at pastel.