2023 was a year of painting for me. My goal for the year was to complete one actual, real, proper painting each month. The year has concluded, and I’m declaring it a success! I met my monthly painting goal, and along the way I had paintings accepted into two gallery exhibitions. I’ve also displayed several paintings at my neighborhood café, which led to my first ever sale.

And I’m not done yet. I’ve got big plans for 2024! But I’ll get to my future goals later. For now, let me sum up some observations from my first 12 months as a beginner painter:

1. Anyone can Paint!
Like so many things in life, if other people are doing it, then you can too. Just by TRYING you’ll already be better than 95% of the other people in the world. This isn’t really a new lesson for me, but I mention it here as #1 in case YOU needed reminding. As for painting, it’s a fun and relaxing way to let your creativity shine. What are you waiting for?

2. It doesn’t take a lot of money or special equipment
A few tubes of paint, a few brushes, and something to paint on. That’s it. Also, you don’t need a dedicated, fancy studio space. I’ve been painting at my dining room table. What a great hobby.

3. 1/4″ plywood is my favorite Substrate, Support, or whatever you call the thing you paint on
Do you paint on canvas? Or maybe on those “Artist panels” from the art store? Something else? There are a lot of options. After experimenting around, my favorite thing to paint on is 1/4″ thick sanded plywood from Lowes. It’s great. It’s inexpensive, available, and durable. It accepts paint beautifully, it is easy to frame, and it can be cut to any size I want.

4. Colors: Less is More
How many colors do you need? I think my best painting of the year was my “mug on windowsill”, which used only three colors (plus white). Using too many colors can result in garish, cartoonish paintings. Especially if you’re using bright, saturated colors straight out of the tube. If you want bright, saturated, garish, … well fine. But for me, I’m happier with my results when I use fewer colors. This was an important lesson for me.

5. Avoid Black Paint
This single change has made the biggest impact for me. Black paint straight out of the tube looks wrong. What I’ve been doing to get “black” in my paintings is to mix all of my other colors into a nice dark mud. Why is this better? The “mixed mud” contains all of the other colors, and so automatically is harmonious with the rest of the painting. Try it and see what you think. Also, by eliminating black, that’s one less tube of paint that you need to buy.

6. Art Professionals don’t know Everything
I submitted my MOBot Angel painting to several shows over this past year, and it was rejected every time. The gallery pros didn’t like it. But it’s the painting of mine that normal people seem to like the most. And it’s the only painting of mine that was purchased by an actual stranger, someone that I’ve never met. What am I to make of this? The preferences of actual humans and the preferences of art professionals isn’t always the same thing. So, if your stuff is rejected by the professionals, don’t fret. They don’t have the final say. If you like your stuff, then other people are bound to like it too. Keep on painting.

So that’s it for 2023. My first year is done. Am I no longer a beginner? Maybe I can claim to be an intermediate painter? Maybe. Happily, there’s certainly still plenty to learn.

Next time: Astounding Goals for 2024!