An artistic autodidact is one way to describe me. I'm self taught in many things, although I did go to uni to get an IT degree.
I've drawn since I could hold a pencil, except for a huge hiatus from when I finished school and left a small country town for the big smoke, until semi-retirement in 2002. Another break from 2004 until 2014 as life got in the way of creativity. Now that there's spare time in the day I've explored oil and acrylic painting, watercolour, pen and wash, and graphite, in subjects from landscapes and pet portraits to adult colouring in.
Before COVID, a friend and I would attend every Lifeline Bookfest and I would come home with cartons of second-hand art books and magazines. I proceeded to absorb these along with many cups of tea and cake.
The artist's job is to find the essence of the image and morph it onto canvas (or paper). The artworks I've done that have been my favourites to work on are the ones where someone has given me a number of photos and computer screen dumps, and asked for a finished work. "Lavinia's beach" and "Lauralda Willowbrooke" were the most fun. I love the challenge of compiling a cohesive image from multiple inputs, keeping the light and perspective appropriate, while using a limited palette of only three or four colours.