First Pastel.....

Black Rock Sunset
Pastel on Canson 32 x 27
©Randy Hamburg

About four years ago is when I began painting again after 30 years.  I had sketched and painted in pastel and a few watercolors when I was in high school.  I had always enjoyed painting but never seemed to have the time for it or let other "projects" take precedence. After our first trip to Hawaii, I came home with inspirational photos that just needed to be painted.  As I was going through them, I kept coming to a sunset photo of Black Rock on Maui that just screamed to be my first attempt to begin painting again.

I began with a starter set of pastels and worked for what seemed like weeks off and on trying to make that painting a work of art.  I think many new painters fall into the same trap.  If I'm going to be a painter, every painting has to be worthy of hanging on a wall in a gallery, or at least in a home.  I wanted to show it off and get favorable comments from my friends that yes, it is an outstanding painting.  We all want to be complemented, sometimes just to build our ego.

As we grow, we get past that point and realize that every painting isn't going to be a masterpiece but we learn from each and every one, even if sometimes they end up in the trash.  More than I can count have been trashed or recycled.  I've grown to the point that now, I paint for the joy of painting, and as long as I'm happy with the result, it's a good painting.

As far as that first pastel (pictured above), it turned out pretty good for someone who hadn't painted in so long.  Although now, after a few years, I can see all sorts of things I would change if I were painting it now, it's special to me because it was the first in the new journey.  And by the way, it is framed and hanging on a wall in my house.  Not because it's a great painting, but because it's special to me and my wife to remind us of our first trip to Hawaii.

Keep painting!