Introduction

I  am an avid  follower of blogs, they are intimate  windows.  Most of  the  blogs I  follow  are Art related.  I prefer blogs written  by practicing  artists; this touches on one of my beliefs.

I retired  from teaching  Science  in 2010 and dedicated  my efforts  to re-teaching  myself  the job of  Art.  My first  degree was BA in Secondary Art Education  in 1971.  Life intervened  preventing  me from daily  practice and without daily practice artistic pursuits do not go far.  Now that  my children  are adults  and my wife and I  are in a comfortable  circumstance, I  can continue  my practice.

You, dear readers, will find me methodical  in my pursuit of  information  for my practice.  It's  my plan to share my information  with you.  However, my practice  is only concerned  with  water media and occasional  forays  into pencil and metalpoint.  Two things about oil painting, some of my friends are oil painters and it smells.

I was trained  in  the  1970s  where Abstract  Expression  held sway in Art instruction.  My college  took this to mean that  anything  goes as far as the picture  elements  and of course, realistic  drawing  was not encouraged and not taught. One instructor stood out, a designer from Africa who suggested a methodology for exploring the creation of the picture.  Looking  back, the freedom of this curriculum felt wonderful but the quality of the instruction left me unprepared for Art in the world.  

I  started  my re-training  in 2008 with evening  sessions  at various  figure  study open sessions in Chicago.  In 2010, I  joined  the Pallet and  Chisel and continued my practice  every Monday, Tuesday  and Friday, leaving the  rest of the  days to do my family  duties  and painting on my own.  I paint about  30 hours per week.  I believe  that  mastery of the human  figure  and face are imperative  for all artists.  However, I   am not a figure  or portrait  artist; my path is to the abstract  side of  two dimensional representation in Art.

Some observations, I like writing done by the person doing the job, not by a critic.  I work in a small studio in my home, so smelly and messy things do not happen.  Learning happens when you commit to the task, you cannot learn from a book or person telling  you  what to do.  Finally, I've noticed as people get older and retire, they'll change their name.  I did, my name is michael.  This is the spelling I prefer.  Incidentally, my profile picture is one of my self portraits.  I make one every six months to chart my technique.