Last Sunday marked the 208th day of I being a teetotaler; this oil painting is 208 days in the making. My story of “From a Borderline Alcoholic to a Teetotaler” will be posted here another day, I promise. Today I wish to write about a hobby that I’ve left behind for about one and a half years.
Ever since I told Cynthia that I refrain from use of alcoholic liquors, on more than one occasion when we were scratching our heads on what gifts to bring along, she always pointed to the bottles of the unopened wine. “I don’t understand why we can’t give them away since you are not drinking anymore,” she would comment.
For the past 208 days, I have five bottles of white wine, one bottle of red wine, one bottle of VSOP, and two cans of cold beer lying somewhere in my home. I am not opening them because I have made a decision and I wish to stick with it; I am not giving them away because I wish to paint and immortalize this moment.
I swear when I lined up the bottle readied to start painting, I had this sudden urge. But that urge was soon overwhelmed by the smell of the turpentine. Do artists get addicted to oil painting because of this thin volatile essential oil? That certainly gave me the lightheadedness. How I miss oil painting. To get the perspective right, I had to sit on the floor. Not a very comfortable position to paint. But it is good to try something different. In retrospect, I don’t think I have got the color of the white wine bottles right. Perhaps next time, I will do a better job.
Click here for my oil painting “gallery”.
14 replies on “My 9th Oil Painting – Monument of the Unopened (Day 208 of Being a Teetotaler)”
You are nothing short of astounding! You’re multi-talented! Music, painting, writing, technology no less!
wow! didn’t know you paint too! coolness 😀
i wish i could paint. but my drawing (+painting) skill is nearing zero. lol.
CSC – I am inspired by the painting you’ve done at your website so I thought: hmmm … I really should pick it up again! Practice made perfect eh? Still a long, long way to go …
Sylv – I am still learning the craft. I guess everyone can draw (like everyone can play music). Just need to keep practicing ya? I am sure you don’t have zero drawing skill! 🙂
*jaw drops*
Lucky I’m a Plastic Surgeon now. hehe….
You can paint! And bro, you revealing too much secrets…. an alcoholic?
I agree….so multi-talented. Is there anything you can’t do?
I did sketch and painting when I was young. Played the piano when I was young. Took up ballet when I was young. Now….nothing remembered coz no practice! :O ..thus back to square-one ….equals…know nothing!
i think i’m a bit cursed if it comes to doing something with hands… even my beading is still not that good and i spend a hell lot of time to get beading things done. maybe coz my fingers are fat and bulky 🙁
when i was 16 or 17 my mom found my kindergarten book for arts and crafts. And all the projects inside there never got a higher score than C+ -_-
oh yes and strangely enough i’m playing piano.
and yes still with much difficulty. i can spread an octave but that’s about it. sighness.
ECL – You are a plastic surgeon now eh?! Look, I want a bigger …
Borderline alcoholic I would say. I guess I just wish to tell the people that I am far from being perfect and I know how hard it is to come out from any form of addiction. Hence the sharing later 🙂
Tigerfish – There are a lot I can’t do! That’s why I am so motivated to keep learning 🙂
You may wish to pick up one of your old hobbies and practice again? I mean, doesn’t have to be ballet. There are many forms of dancing too!
Now, to tell you the truth, I can’t dance at all, amongst many other things (such as like I have shared with you before at your site … I can’t deep fry!).
Sylv – I wish to share with you something. When I was young, I scored very poor in any form of painting – be it as the Chinese black-and-white type painted with ink or watercolor. And I scored very low in English writing too. The very first exam I failed (and the last I think) was a test on writing a short English story.
I think (and hope) I am doing slightly better than what I have done before in these two departments.
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