This month, the topic for the artist’s journal is my earliest art memories.
That’s important for a couple of reasons.
First, those early art experiences laid the groundwork for the art I do today. Without remembering those early experiences, it’s much too easy to lose sight of the journey itself, and the reason I make art in the first place.
The second reason is other artists who see my current work may wonder where it all began. And that’s important because so often, we look at someone else’s work and see only the current work. We don’t know where those artists began or the struggles they went through to get where they are today.
And that’s why I’ve chosen to write a post about my own early memories; to show you that I started in the same place you did. At the beginning.
My Earliest Art Memories
Let me begin by saying that I don’t have very many clear memories of early childhood. I know I had a black rocking horse, because I’ve seen a picture of me riding it in the backyard.
In the same way, I know I drew a lot because I’ve seen photographs of the animals I drew in places where they shouldn’t have been drawn. Inside a dresser drawer, for example. I don’t how old I was when I drew on that drawer bottom, but I was old enough to know animals had a head, a tail, and four legs. It’s clear I wasn’t yet artistically aware of the differences between cows and horses, because that animal had characteristics of both.
(I searched my photos and slides for a picture of that picture, but couldn’t find it. It’s around somewhere, but you know how closets and storage areas get after decades!)
Mom told me often that she opened up brown paper grocery bags so I could draw on them. She also told me more than once that at some point, I drew a forest scene that included trees (what’s a forest without trees)?, deer, and a river. I wish I had some kind of photographic record of that, because to hear Mom tell it, there were even tree roots in the ground and in the river. Apparently, I was very detail-oriented even back then.
The medium back then was crayons (Crayola, of course!) and No. 2 pencils.
My Earliest Clear Memories
Some of my earliest art memories are of sitting on the floor of my bedroom, working on paint-by-number oil paintings. They were my first introduction to oil painting and once I got started, I did every horse painting I could get. Mares and foals. Race horses. You get the idea. Browsing websites like Etsy and eBay and seeing the “vintage” sets for sale sure brings back the memories.
I didn’t do much painting of my own until two things happened.
First, my mother suggested I draw my own horses to paint. I still have a couple of those paintings. The one shown below is truly of my own making, as I don’t recall using anything but my imagination to draw and paint the horse.
The second thing was discovering artist Bill Alexander. Mr. Alexander had a weekly TV show on the public broadcasting channel. Every weekend, he spent half an hour painting landscapes using Magic White, big brushes, and bold strokes.
I bought some of his tools and tried my hand at painting landscapes. I couldn’t get the same results in half an hour, but I liked most of the paintings. For a time, I focused on painting landscapes using his techniques.
Then I worked other techniques into my paintings. I used impasto techniques for a few snow scenes, but they took so long to dry that I didn’t do much impasto work.
The final step was combining those landscape methods with horses, and starting to paint horses in the landscape.
Those are My Earliest Art Memories
I don’t know how old I was when I first picked up a crayon. I just don’t remember that and Mom never told me specifics. Just that I always seemed to be drawing.
The most recent painting in this post is circa 1977. At the time, I would have been drawing and painting for about 15 years.
During this period, I was strictly an oil painter. I did try acrylics and oil pastels, but had no taste for either one.
But I did eventually pick up colored pencils, and I’ll talk about that in a future post.
The point of this walk down memory lane is to remind established artists who might be struggling that all of us have to start somewhere.
And for those of you who are new to colored pencils or making art, don’t be discouraged by your work right now. If you keep drawing or painting, you will improve.
The fact is, you won’t be able to avoid it!
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Early on, it’s obvious, that you were already a talented artist. Just not developed. In my case, I remember drawing, but probably not much. No one guided or encouraged me to do more art. I don’t know if that would have made a difference. In later years I became more interested in creating art and for a time was an illustrator for a manufacturing company. Since then I have worked on improving my art. I have some catching up to do. When I see artwork from others who say they are just beginning, and it looks like they have been doing it for years, I must choose to be discouraged or encouraged to try harder.
Jim,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment, and thank you very much for your kind words. I can’t take credit for those early drawings because I was doing what came naturally, like breathing. It’s just the way I was made.
But your final comment is also so very true, and probably more important: Choosing to be discouraged or encouraged by the work of others.
One thing I’d like to say is that those people who say they are beginners at colored pencils might be coming from another medium. I had been oil painting for a couple of decades before I picked up a colored pencil. A lot of the things I learned about painting horses in oils transferred to drawing horses in colored pencils.
Some beginners are also beginning with in-person tutoring or in a classroom setting. That also makes a huge difference in their work.
So choose to be encouraged by what you see and keep in mind that not everyone starts out directly with colored pencils, or on their own!
Thank you again for your comments.