This is why art school was good…for me. I got to play around with different mediums, inside a messy studio setting, and with feedback…if I wanted. I tried ceramics, printmaking, watercolors, pastels, gouache, acrylics, pen/ink, colored pencils, conte crayons, drawing, design and illustration; and took classes in perspective, anatomy, color theory, art history and more that I’ve now forgotten. In the end though, I loved oils best so discarded everything else including sketching. It’s now been 40 years of having only oil paint as my main course.
Despite being in art school, there were never specific lessons on materials, techniques, or mediums and what they are and how best to use them. That means I still don’t think I paint “correctly” and so continue to fumble around, painting after painting. But because oils are easy to manipulate, I’ve used them in conjunction with latex house paint, spray paints, fluorescent paint, fabric dyes, various textiles, embedded objects (sand, pennies, buttons), modeling paste, crackle medium, gold leaf, bits of ephemera, stenciling, sewing and hardware.
Nothing produced has been earth-shatteringly unique or anything, but these little “experiments” are what keep me from getting too bored. Like adding a sprinkling of spices to a steady and strict diet of oil. Yum.