work with oils

Paintings by DebiLynn Fendley

I’m a 53 year old artist who lives, breathes, and sleeps art but is still forced to have a day job to pay the bills. I have three graduate degrees, one of them an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art. I am single, and art is truly all I have in life. I have sacrificed much, including any chance at a social life or normal familial relationships to make art.

Although I studied art in college, the formal practice of oil and academic painting was not part of what I learned. I think this has left a huge deficit in what I do as an artist. I know in theory the proper way to work with oils, but the demonstration I need to have confidence in pursuing academic painting has eluded me.

I want to continue learning about the historical techniques of the old masters in order to pursue oil painting in an archival way. I have mastered watercolor and acrylics, but oil painting is king. It is and always has been more revered than any other media. …