I'm new to the group and the 'alert' is for me... I feel like this is not my domain - I am the world's laziest artist. I have no formal training and feel resistant to drawing out what I really should before I get started (I think it's my drawing skills that kill my vibe). Somehow, I have managed to create a few paintings I really love. But I've also gone AWOL on my art in lieu of business-building (which seems to have been never-ending for 36 years) ... So, here I am - ready to engage and be inspired by all you incredible people doing incredible heart-based things. Here's a random selection of some of my creations. (Sorry - they seems to have come up a bit grainy in the transfer...)

Hey Artists If you've ever wanted to paint a dramatic coastal scene but weren't sure where to start, my latest post walks through exactly how I painted the Twelve Apostles in oils, from thumbnail sketches through to final highlights. I cover colour mixes for ocean blues, how to handle white water without it looking flat, and the brush techniques I use to keep things loose and painterly. It's a good read whether you're just starting out or looking to tighten up your seascape skills. Check it out here: 👇 https://samuelearp.com/blog/seascape-painting/ I'd love to see any coastal paintings you're working on. Drop them in the comments below! Cheers. Sam

So here's a thing I can't say enough of. Always buy the best artist quality oil colour you can afford. Student oil paint is made using chemicals not pigments. It smells, it fades, the colours have no strength and all of that plus more makes painting so much harder and painful to do. I've been painting in oils for 5 decades, trust me, you don't need quantity you need quality. These 6 colours with give you great results and will put the pleasure back into painting without burning a hole in your pocket. 1, Titanium White 2, Cadmium Lemon 3, Cadmium Orange 4, French Ultramarine Blue 5, Burnt Sienna 6, Ivory Black A great addition to these 6 colours would be; Naples Yellow. Alizarin Crimson, and Sap Green Titanium White and Ivory Black mixed together will give you lots of cool greys. Add a little orange to give you warm greys. Adding small amounts of grey will reduce the chroma of any colour. Cadmium Lemon and Ivory Black will give you a nice green. Add Sap Green to increase the chroma. Add more Cadmium Lemon or French Ultramarine Blue to alter the hew. Adding Cadmium Orange to any green mix will make a warmer green. Cadmium Lemon and French Ultramarine Blue will give you a wide selection of high chroma greens. Add Cadmium Orange or Burnt Sienna to warm these greens up Cadmium Orange will control the chroma of French Ultramarine Blue. Adding Naples Yellow will to this blue mix will change the hew of the blue to a more sky blue colour and with Titanium White make a great low horizon sky colour. Add Naples Yellow to Titanium White for a warmer white. Add a small amount of Cadmium Orange to this mix for great natural cloud colours. French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna make a transparent black. This mix when you add a small amount of solvent will give you a transparent stain to map out or draw your image onto the canvas with. Add more Burnt Sienna to this mix and it gives you a warm classical Imprimatura coloured stain to use as an underpainting. Ideal for starting paintings of forests, still life and portraits. Add less Burnt Sienna or more French Ultramarine Blue to this Imprimatura mix for painting seascapes and skies.