From the author of Treetops and Tidepools, the story of how she learned to paint by doing, and from copying those who can.
Val painting in 2001 with the help of Sam the Parrot (Not the Husband)
I believe that anyone can paint. We spent hours doing it as children. I used to paint as a young girl, but marriage, children, school, jobs, and running my own business took its toll on the artist in me. All of the paintings I produced as a young girl burned up in a house fire in the 1970’s. I am a true Gemini. I love to write, but I also had this urge to paint again. So after a lapse of about 40 years I renewed my interest in art.
I was busy around the house one day and my husband called me in and asked if I wanted him to record one of the Bob Ross instructional programs that he had accidentally come across while “surfing the web.” Inspired the simplicity with which Bob managed to plop paint onto a canvas and within the allotted time of about 20 minutes produced passable landscapes, I told myself that indeed, “I can do that.” Paying a quick trip to E-bay, I hunted up Bob Ross paints and other accoutrements of his style of painting, and within days, went to work.
My first attempt at a Bob Ross painting in 2000
My first attempt was a “Mountain Scene” and moving on from there, did another winter scene, but at that time my love was for the “light” paintings of Thomas Kinkade, and being English loved cottages and sunsets and I couldn’t help myself. I was a total Kinkade copycat. I loved to do the water in the village scenes, learned to blend oils to copy the beautiful sunsets, and learned to paint lighter in the background and to use stronger colors in the foreground to portray depth. I had found a wealth of subjects in a batch of 15 Kinkade postcards I found, in all places, a gun store, and of that came my cottage campaign.
My version of some Kinkade Cottages, learning to blend sky colors, and portray depth in a painting.
Amazing.. really very beautiful paintings. You are truly an ARTIST 
Best of luck!!
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