Painted Sea Shells and Wood Pieces

Growing up, all I ever wanted to paint or draw was horses. Art teachers in Grade School and High School frustrated me to no end wanting me to draw anything else, so in 9th grade I quit drawing and taking any kind of art classes.

I had been learning model horse painting from Chris (Cook) Flint and I even stopped that, regretfully now.

Art became like poetry too me, something I didn't like. Oh I dabbled at still painting models but was more frustrated than anything.

It took a lot of years and finally just giving into the urge to actually sit and paint models and work at getting better. With that came the urge to do flat work again.

I bought some very small canvas - like 4x6 - to practice on.

As you can see I was not that good at depth or even the shapes but I did try. Frustration still abounded and still does but I have started to do other things to teach myself painting technique since I can't find someone to help me learn that doesn't want to charge me hundreds of dollars. 

I came across some wood pieces and sea shells and thought well I will try my hand at those. These were my first attempts at the wood pieces.

These were my first attempts at painting on the sea shells

I stopped painting them for a while because, again, the frustration was building. Recently, I purchased about 20 large sea shells for a really cheap price at a thrift store and thought - what the heck just start painting. 

While I have a long way to go - I am liking how they are turning out and I am learning more and more about getting everything where I want.