The first time I took Oil Painting classes was in a small town in the foothills of the mighty Himalayas in India. There was uncertainty in the province and our annual exams were postponed indefinitely. To make the most of the ample time available at hand, my parents enrolled me in to painting classes. Two of my close friends also joined. We would cycle to the painting teacher’s house together. There was a huge rectangular room where small tables were placed all along the periphery. The teacher was a young lady in her twenties with a year old baby whom she would put to sleep while she took classes.

The first day we had to draw horizontal and vertical lines free-hand on paper with pen or pencil. She explained all about oil paintings – how oil paintings last a long time, and retain their colour, why the supplies ae expensive, and that once the painting is dry we can paint even white over dark Then we had to decide which painting we wanted to paint first – Landscape, Floral, Still Life, or Portrait. Once each student decided on the genre the teacher passed around many painting reference photos and asked the students to pick a particular painting. She gave us a list of supplies that we were supposed to bring the next day. The size of the hardboard was suggested. This included the Hardboard of the suggested size to be bought from the hardware store, turpentine oil, linseed oil, colours, brushes, a palette, and rag for cleaning.

Next day armed with all the stuff we reached our class at 4 PM. The class used to be from 4 PM to 6 PM six days a week at vey nominal fee. Ten to twelve of us would be painting there each day with the instructor giving us directions periodically. She taught us how to make new colours from the 12 colours in the pack. I run out to Titanium White within the first few days. I realised that while painting white colour is used most. So I bought a big tube of titanium white.I painted the following three paintings 38 years ago in mid-teens in three months of coaching whereas both my friends were able to complete only two paintings each.

My first oil painting

My second oil painting

My third oil painting

None of these was a floral painting, the genre which I have been pursuing since 2011. In the past 11 years, I have painted 100s of paintings. I gifted them in initial years, As my skill improved, my paintings started selling. In 2018 I set up this wordpress site to protect the copy right of my paintings. 10 years ago I had done research social media marketing and came to know that if I put my paintings on Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram then that company gets the copyright. So I upload the painting on WordPress and after that share on social media. I have integrated the social media and developed an order in which each post or page is shared.

My paintings adorn the Happy Homes of relatives, friends and generous patrons.