After a long time passion for photography I felt it was time for something new. More and more I realised that I was lacking inspiration. I felt I was photographing the same things over and over again. I needed a new challenge.

Never had I considered picking up painting. Not even my dad and son inspired me to give it a try. Untill at a certain point I went through several books about painting that my dad had left me after he passed away and picking up some of the brushes that where still in a jar where he last put them. I guess that was a moment when that little spark was lit. It was tiny but it grew quite fast. It started a journey in the wide world of painting where the internet bombarded me with the most beautiful works of painters all over the world. It also confronted me with the choice which medium I would choose. Oil, acryllics or watercolour? Well that choice wasn't too difficult. I immediately fell for the latter. It is a challenging medium to learn to master, the effect it brings is beautiful, it is a clean medium to work with being solvable in water and it is quite easy to take along on a short or long trip.

One of the challenges that I ran into (and from time to time still run into) was/is finding the style that I find appealing. My photography was mainly portrait and landscape so making a choice for landscape painting is quite obvious. So up to now that is my main focus. I also try to limit myself to only two, three or four painters whose style I find appealing, Oliver Pyle being one of them. And because he has a wonderful series of Youtube tutorials I have already learned a lot. It is not my intention to learn to copy him but I feel that his tutorials guide me to learn/master the different techniques and that way I hope to gradually find my own style. I'm optimistic that this will work out well.

But most of all I hope that I will keep the pleasure that I find now in painting and share some of my work on this forum.

Thank you and for now, happy painting!

Kind regards,

Ron Albers

Esch, Netherlands