Bucket of Black Paint

I’m slowly taking my art more seriously. At first it was just me having fun with what I had or what I could get cheaply at Michaels. I ended up with a pretty basic plein aire paint kit that, while I do enjoy and love, has me limited to a specific size and format. From the very beginning I wanted to try and grow in scale. To practice larger format art just because it looks cool! It’s been a bit of a challenge to grow though, and thats where this story begins.

I have only ever had those cheap tiny tubes of acrylic paint, and while that is still the case right now, I’ve managed to introduce some fun new things to my home station. Remember that backdrop I built and posted to Instagram? Well if you don’t here it is.

Aside from being a nice backdrop this roll of plastic sheeting is also a great tarp for catching paint! I’m sticking to the black background right now, partly because I like it the best, and partly because I bought my first gallon of black paint! I feel so powerful with this bucket. But I’m also scared. It’s so easy to stain with it, to splotch where you’re not supposed to. And the bigger can of paint needs a particular kind of care and maintenance to make sure I do not waste or break my tools and materials. It’s a fun challenge, but I’m excited to have it dialed in so I can get back to really painting stuff. The benefit is, and you’ll notice it in future work, that now I can start all my paintings on a black base. I’m excited to see how it goes 😊