I want to make my living off my paintings

Artwork by David Miller

I have been drawing, painting and pursuing arts since I was a child. I started an art degree in college, but later switched to Information Technology to cover the cost of living and raising a family. I’ve been working in IT Security for quite a while now, but my love has always been painting.

I fall asleep at night thinking about painting. After I finish painting for the evening, I’ll take a picture of my progress, and then I will lie in bed and critique my work for long periods of time. When my eyes won’t stay open any more, I close them and start thinking about how I might paint tomorrow, and I visualize the brush strokes and the colors. I reflect on what I did that really worked and what didn’t. I do this almost daily. I am happiest when I start painting and all the way through the process.

I want most to learn to paint beautiful impressionist paintings and I really would like to master portrait painting. There is something so invigorating when you get the perfect color value mixed and then, when you touch the brush to the canvas. I bring from my mind to the canvas something new, a subject that starts to glow on the canvas. I love to put sunlight behind leaves, gilding them just so.

I have spent hundreds of hours watching tutorials and watching other painters as they demonstrate technique, providing advice, and sharing their knowledge and experience. Many of my favorite videos are those where I can just watch the artist paint. Watching is so meditative. With The Old Masters Academy, I was immediately struck by the pure academic structure, something I’ve always felt I missed out on by not continuing with my art degree. The depth of instruction and the detail truly impressed me. More importantly, I truly appreciate the scientific approach that The Old Masters Academy beautifully delivers. I almost feel as if I’m getting to peer through the eyes of the real old masters as they learned.

I feel like a kid again. I have resolved my path in painting, and I’m trying to drink up as much information as I can about painting and drawing. I want to win this contest so I can dive even deeper into the learning process, to refine my skills and put as many tools, techniques, and lessons in my head. Two to three hours a day I try to fill with some form of art training. I’m either doing figure studies, or I’m planning out my next painting with thumbnails or gathering reference material.

I want to make my living off my paintings. I spend so much of my time working to become proficient. That is what I want to do more than nearly everything else. I love the smell of linseed oil. I love to paint. That is why you should vote for me. I will share with the world. My biggest fear is that I will never paint enough and that I will eventually run out of time before I run out of paint.