This post was written on Monday 5/26/25. I didn’t get to work on my old shed yesterday because I had other things I needed to work on, but today the weather was still soggy. Painting while it rains outside is my favorite thing to do in this case.

Today I worked on the cacophony of trees in the middle ground. It’s still wet, so hard to get a good photo, but here’s where it stands now:

Handmade Paints

I know those of you who know or follow me already know this, but for the new folks out there – all of my paints are handmade. I’m using oil paints now, but started at the beginning with watercolors.

After trying the pigments in oils, I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to watercolors. I love the rich depth I can get with the oil paints.

Most of the pigments are locally sourced. I use rocks, clay, soot, and bone. The white, blue, and now a green pigment are outsourced and processed by hand into paint. The green and blue are both blended with my Ozark pigments to ‘earthy’ them down to fit my palette.

The oils I use include poppyseed, linseed, and walnut. These are all three from plant sources I could grow (poppies, linseed) or wildcraft (walnut), if necessary.

I like knowing I could continue to make art, even if I couldn’t buy any supplies. The quality of it would change if I had to find things to paint on, make brushes to paint with, and do without the white, blue, and green. Ha. But at least I could paint.

Painting While it Rains

Tomorrow might be another rainy day. If it is, that’s what I’ll be doing again… painting while it rains. But I’ll work on a different one because this one needs a few days to dry now.