Selfie

Selfie 30x40 Oil 2018

Upon retirement as a librarian in 2018, I knew that I needed to paint regularly in order to get back into practice and to sharpen my skills. Since I enjoy painting people, I often make family members the subject of new work. I happened upon a photo of my two great-nieces that I thought was adorable. Thus Amelia and Aubrey are the two figures I painted in Selfie. If you want to be good at anything you need to work at it on a regular basis. Even though I think I have natural artistic ability, nothing beats educating yourself and practice.

The painting turned out okay. However, I made a mistake when I varnished the final project. I should have used a spray-on varnish over the oil painting in order to get more uniformity. I ended up doing two brushed-on applications of varnish and wasn’t too pleased with the result. I also should have photographed the piece before putting on a glossy finish. The important thing is that I learned from the experience and remembered the spray-on option for my next project.