In another life and another time, I would possibly be tempted to be a little down on how my year is going so far. I have been ill with a virus since before the turn of the New Year and I finally went to the Doctors yesterday and may have glandular fever so am  taking it a little easy.

However, as I am managing to work a little in the studio each day all is well. I started this painting at the weekend in acrylics and liked her face so before finishing her (I will likely go back to work on her later) I decided to jump right in with an idea for a larger oil painting that I had using the same composition with a background. Apart from the odd practice with oil paints last year, the work I have done with oil bars and the self-portrait from a few weeks back this is my first proper venture into oil painting so it is a rather big leap!

So – early days but I am already excited to see how the painting progresses. I have a lot to learn, but sometimes there is only so much reading and thinking you can do and actually getting down to the work is the best course of action. I feel as if I actually build up an acrylic painting in a fairly similar way to painting with oils in glazes and layers so am keen to see if I can create the same kind of atmosphere and feel in a very different medium.

So I have started with the under painting and will build up the colours and tones as I go. I will continue to document the progress as I go along and hopefully not make a mess of it.