Painting experience

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope, that you are all doing just fine.

In this article I want to tell you about this experience of painting with oils on canvas and how everything went very well and that I was really proud of it, because I could express myself in a different way and, at the same time, not to express myself, I guess. It’s a matter of minds, and it’s pretty complicated, however, painting is not that complicated, if you ask me and it’s really great to paint something on that canvas.

First of all, let me tell you how it all started.

Well, my sister loves painting and she paints a lot in her free time or wherever she feels like it and she has these many canvases and oil paints and everything and I just really wanted to try them out and see how that painting was supposed to be done, you know. However, I never did that and this other day, I just really wanted to try it. Well, I knew, that she was going to paint something, because it was my uncle’s birthday coming up and I knew, that he wanted a painting of lilacs and he had told her about that some time ago and she decided to have a present for him and paint some lilacs, though the searching process was pretty tiring, because she didn’t really know, what type of painting he would like and there were so many versions of painting lilacs, that she got really confused and didn’t know what to do. She started searching some photos of lilacs in the Internet and she had some of them brought at home and put them in a vase and looked at them and, well, I didn’t really know, that it could be that much of a process of deciding about painting something. I guess, that was because she wanted that painting for someone and not for herself, otherwise she would just paint what she wanted. But this time, it was a gift for someone and she wanted to have a painting, that would be beautiful and , at the same time, just what that other person would like, so that it was pretty tough to decide, of course. Anyways, the searching process continued for quite some time and she was not going to let it go and she even watched some videos on youtube and saw some other paintings of other people and stuff like that and it was kind of tiring at the end, if you want to know the truth. And then, she had this one picture of lilacs in a vaseand she decided to paint something like that, however, it wouldn’t be exactly like that, you know. It would be changed in the painting process and that is just what people do when they paint, I guess, because you can’t really describe your feelings and stuff like that when you just copy that exact picture on the canvas, if you want to know the truth.

Where to get painting stuff in Tbilisi

Now, I decided to tell you about this place, where my sister usually gets canvases and oil paints in Tbilisi, because there are not many places there, where you can get them and if you get them some other place, then they might be very expensive, for example, in Koh-i-noor shop, which I know, that is located on Kazbegi avenue nearby Delisi metro station. They don’t really have much of a choice of painting sets and canvases, however, what they have cost pretty expensive and you should not really spend that much money on them, if you ask me.

So, there’s this place nearby Rustaveli metro station and they used to call it Zemeli, I guess, and there are those paintings and canvases and stuff like that and they cost pretty normal, I mean, prices are just reasonable and you should definitely go there if you want to buy some painting stuff or if you want to have your stuff framed and things like that. Many people know about that place and I have seen many of them going there and ordering frames and getting canvases and everything. it’s a  great place and, besides, it’s easy to access it, because you go there  by metro and get into that underground and there’s this metal door just at the end of the underground thing and you should get in there and walk straight, where you will find these men there and they are working on those canvases and frames and they have all those brushes and oil paints and stuff like that, too, and you can buy whatever you want there. However, it’s more of a workshop, than the actual shop and once, when I visited them to buy some oil paints, they told me, that they had this shop just across the street, where I could go and buy everything that I needed and it would be more comfortable for me, than buying things there, because in that shop I could walk around and look at those paints and everything and decide, which one I really wanted and stuff like that, you know. So that it would be better, if I just visited that shop whenever I wanted to buy something and there were also some canvases there andframes and everything. you know, there are many canvases there, but the sizes are like standards, I mean, they usually have some specific sizes for those canvases and if you want to have some special sizes, then you should go there in that underground and order them what you want, because otherwise, you won’t find your desired sized canvases in that shop, if you want to know the truth. Well, my sister has been wanting to order some specific size canvas, however, she has not been there for quite some time now and I don’t know, whether she is going to go there some time later or whatever.

So, you can also get to that underground by some buses, which go to Rustaveli avenue and there are many buses going there. You can take bus no.88, 140, 61,which can go to that place from every direction, you know. And then there are some buses, which go there from Chavchavadze avenue or Heroes Square or whatever and buses, which go there from that Freedom Square, so that it all depends on where you are going there from. And I can say, that whichever bus you take, they will all get there, so that you need not to worry about missing the bus stop or something like that.

Well, the shop is called “Frame Atelier” and it’s located just across the street from the Rustaveli metro station in a building and you can easily see the sign, because it’s pretty large and there’s a sign on it in Georgian, so that it’s pretty easy to notice it. However, I really hate going there, because there’s no direct way to get there and you have to cross many roads until you get there. First of all, you should cross the road towards the underground tunnel, then you go into it and get to the other side and then you should cross three streets, where there are zebras, however, the cars are moving pretty fast and it’s really dangerous to cross them , because they usually don’t’ want to stop and let you through. And that’s why I don’t like going to that shop, though I prefer buying those things in a shop, of course, where there is a vast space and everything is put on their places and you can see many things, that they have there and you can decide, which items you want to buy. And they have a variety of canvases and paints of different types and brushes and everything. you can even have some frames ordered there and some of them are already prepared and some of them can be prepared there in a couple of minutes. And the prices are pretty reasonable, because you may buy some pretty large oil paint tubes for just 2 or 3 Laris, which last for a really long time, I mean, you can use them in many paintings and it’s not like they are for just one painting. They are more than enough for one, if you want to know the truth. Well, it still depends on the size of that canvas and the amount of paint, that you are going to use on them, I mean, you can use the whole tube for that painting and make it like a real 3D painting, you know, and I really love those kind of paintings, however, it takes much time for that amount of paints to get dry. And I’m talking about oil paints and not the other ones, because, you know, oil paints get dried pretty slowly and they need quite some time for that.

Anyways, now  you know, where to find some good stuff for painting if you want to paint something and it’s a really good idea to do that, because you will feel some kind of freedom when you start using that brush and do those strokes and everything, if you want to know the truth.

The painting

Well, when everything was kind of decided and it was time to start painting, first of all it needed to be prepared and I mean, that the background should be done with white and it needed plenty of white paint , if you want to know the truth, because the canvas was of sizes 50x70 cm and it was pretty large, as you may have guessed. It was supposed to be a white and light purple colours in the background, so that’s why it needed plenty of white there and we had three or four tubes of white, because you should always have plenty of white. There is this set of oil paints, which my sister bought in the Netherlands and it’s Van Gogh paints set and there were two white colours there, so that it’s really important to have plenty of white colour tubes, when you are painting and it’s really necessary, if you want to know the truth.

Well, she was using this palette knife for the white paint to be spread on the canvas and she did that thing, when you don’t leave too much paint on one spot, so that everything would spread evenly and there shouldn’t have been too much paint on the canvas, so that it would dry faster, than when it had plenty of paints there. And she could use some oil to kind of dissolve the paint and it would spread even better on the canvas , because it would be kind of moist and things like that and it would be cool, you know, however, then it would need even more time to become dried and stuff like that and that’s why she didn’t really use any oil there. When the white paint was evenly spread there, it was time to decide the rough shape of those lilacs in the vase and at that spot it was not really necessary to have that white paint there, you know, because you could just spread the lilacs purple paint there to get its shape. It was not very easy to do, though, because she didn’t exactly know, how she wanted to paint that shape, I mean, the flowers can be either here and there or just in one spot and it all depends on how you put them in a vase, of course, and she had to adjust those flowers to the canvas, so that they would look beautifully on it, you know, and there would be kind of a symmetry or asymmetry, but there still would be some kind of order on the painting, so that there would be nothing extra and everything would get well with each other and there would be some kind of harmony there, you know.

Anyways, when the white paint was all done, she did that thing, when you use the palette knife to make some kind of bumps and things like that on the canvas with the paint, so that the painting resembles the real one, I mean, it’s not 2 dimensions anymore, but it kind of get three dimensional and it’s pretty cool that way, you know. Then she started painting the middle of the canvas, where there were supposed to be that vase and lilacs and she made that dark purple shapes on that spot and tried to make some shapes there and it was not supposed to be the exact shapes, because when you are painting the background, it’s not that necessary to paint the whole thing, you know, you just have to do something, that kind of resembles the shapes and then you can do some other things and prepare the details and get everything done as you want. Well, to be honest, not every time you can do whatever you want, I mean, sometimes it’s not that simple to do something, that you want to do and some things change because of that, and no matter how hard you try, it just gets worse, you know. Sometimes it’s just better if you do something without any details or something like that and sometimes just those strokes here and there make your painting better and cool and while many people can think, that you put much time and effort in doing those things , you know, that you didn’t and it just came naturally and that natural ways are what makes the painting real and fascinating, if you want to know the truth.

Anyways, after those lilacs, there had to be a vase, too, and there needed to be some kind of shape of that vase and nothing more just then. However, my sister decided to have it already done and then , if she wanted, she could change the vase, of course, and that’s the perks of oil paints, if you don’t like something, you can take the paint out and wait for it to get dry and then put some new one on it and have it repainted just like there was nothing else before that. So, she made that vase white and then she had some blue and purple paint to make the  edges of that vaseand she painted some branches of those lilacs into that vase, because it was supposed to be transparent and there would be those branches of the flowers visible, of course, and then it needed some white, so that it would reflect the light and that some water was there and stuff like that , you know.

Well, after that the fun stuff started to begin and I could use that brush or palette knife and help her do those things, when you put too much paint on some posts, so that it kind of feels three dimensional and there are some spots, where looking at them you kind of feel the real flowers there and that was the main point of making those things there, if you want to know the truth. And I put that dark putple things there and I used plenty of that purple paint, however, as I’ve already told you, it was more than enough the colour in that tube for it to be finished or something like that, you know. That’s why I used plenty of it on that canvas. Then, I could blend some whites on top of those spots, however, it was not really necessary to do that right at that time, so that I decided just to have some places done like that and then we would wait for the colours to get dried and then we would continue painting the lilacs. However, as you know, it needed much time for everything to get dried, I mean, usually the oil paints get dried in 24 hours minimum and that’s when it’s just a thin layer of that colour and imagine that large spot with plenty of oil paint on it and you can understand, that it would get dried in quite some time and it wouldn’t be that easy and it would need days for it to get dried, of course. Well, there were not many days left until my uncle’s birthday, however, you can’t really do anything at that time, when the painting has to be dried and that’s how it works and you have to wait for it, you know, so we waited. Then there were some things to be done and it was not time for us to paint and, well, it kind of got late, but it didn’t really matter, because we needed the painting to be perfect and not just something done quickly or whatever, so that the main thing here was the painting and my sister could give it to my uncle when it was all finished and ready, of course. And it would be in some other days, I guess , because it still needed plenty of colours on those lilacs and then it would need some days to get all dried and stuff like that, and, besides, the oil paints can get dried better when they are outside or on a breeze or whatever, and we didn’t have that advantage, because even if we had a window open for it for some time, it was not enough and since it was pretty much cold outside, we couldn’t leave the window open for a long time, of course, and that’s why it couldn’t get dried faster.

So, after some days, when my sister had time and she felt like painting those lilacs, she took that painting and started making those cute little things on those spots, where the lilacs were supposed to be. It was really cool, seeing how everything got really beautiful and they kind of resembled the real lilacs from some distance, you know. It was really amazing. She made those lilacs white and light purple and they were like real ones on that dark purple background and that three dimensional spots were really great because of that. Then I made those things on the edges of the painting, where it was like some colourings on those sides and they were light purple, so that the background was not just white, but it had those light purple things on the edges, which made the painting even better and I also did that frame thing, I mean, I painted all those four edges of the canvas with that purple paint, so that it wouldn’t need any frames at all. And nowadays, I don’t think, that many people prepare frames for all paintings, and some painting don’t need any frames at all, because they are better off without them. We have all those paintings without any frames and they look really good just like that and I think, if they have some frames, they won’t look that great that way, because they will get no space or whatever, I can’t really describe it. At least, I can say, that the paintings will be in frames and, you know, there shouldn’t be any frames in life, I guess, or it can be some light frames, or something like that.

Well, that was pretty much of an experience of painting for me and I was really satisfied of me painting that thing, if you want to know the truth, however, it was not just the painting that I did, I mean, I kind of gave away something inside of me and that was some kind of relief, or whatever, I don’t really know, though it felt good and I felt like doing something and I felt like I had all that power in me and I could do whatever I wanted. It was like a Bruce Almighty or something like that. I was pretty much pleased and I wanted to do that some time soon. It’s really a good idea to paint something with those brushes and things like that and have a little charge on you, you know. It feels really great and you should definitely do that, too. It’s not like you are painting a picture or something, it’s more like you are expressing yourself and you are just making those strokes and you can’t really predict what comes out of it, though you know, that it’s something you are doing on purpose.

Anyways, it was a great experience for me to paint something with my sister and paint something for someone, you know, so that it would mean double significance for me that painting, if you want to know the truth. I definitely recommend painting some things on your ownand then you realize how great thing it is to paint something, and even if you don’t have that “talent” of painting and you don’t know what to paint and you can’t really paint or whatever, you should try it and see, whether that is true or not, and maybe you can’t paint those exact pictures or whatever, you still can express yourself and you can do that with making those strokes on that canvas and be pleased with yourself expressing your feelings or that mood or stuff like that.

Photo gallery