As you'll know, I have now cracked the forum, thanks to all the advice I was kindly given. It's when you encounter something like that, and this gallery, that you realize what a wonderful thing the Internet can be. Any tutor who teaches by grabbing your brush and attacking your painting ought to be gently suspended by the neck for an hour or two, in my opinion; but I do remember a little book Winston Churchill wrote on painting ("Painting as a Pastime"); he had bought himself a box of paints, and brushes & canvas, and was standing irresolutely in front of it (I know the feeling..) when a family friend, Lady Lavery, wife of Sir John Lavery the painter, turned up, said "Painting! But what are you hesitating about? Let me have a brush - the big one." He goes on, "splash into the turpentine, wallop into the blue and the white, frantic flourish on the palette - clean no longer - and then several large, fierce strokes and slashes of blue on the absolutely cowering canvas." Churchill found this "broke the spell", and enabled him to go and do likewise. But note that Lady L did NOT attack his painting, but a blank canvas. That's a bit different to your Tutor from Hell... I wish her ladyship had taught me; it's taken me a long time to develop that degree of confidence. If you take a look at Roger L Bansemer's painting demos, by the way, you'll find he has problems with the quick drying nature of acrylics, in the Florida heat. It's not a problem I've ever had (and I use a stay-wet palette anyway) because I don't do much painting outside - I draw, and photograph, then come back home to paint. But Bansemer uses an atomizer ... you may find it useful in the Australian sun. Others have tried Atelier acrylics, which are supposed to remain workable; but I see from the forums that they've driven some people to distraction.

Hi Robert and welcome you will enjoy it here I know I do...I live in Perth Western Australia an ex-pat from the Wirral and previous to that Belfast...I have just taken up the brushes again after 20 odd years and started with acrylics for the first time...I of course went into a frenzy buying books on acrylics and how to...how frustrating although I have began to learn how to handle the ever frustrating acrylics especially in the summer heat...I now attend a local society once a week to regain some of my lost skills...we have a wonderful Tutor who dosn't actually tell us what to do more just give advice as we go along...he supplies us with subjects according to our abilities...when I first enrolled for a class it was a disaster with the unprepared Tutor grabbing the brush out of the new peoples hands and smearing paint all over our paper...I changed classes...I noticed in the first class that many of the artists!!! were just sitting back and waiting for her to come around and paint for them...awful...it's a bit of a struggle getting back the freedom of watercolour but I feel once I conquer them again that I can conquer anything...as to the Forum I have a shortcut on my computer screen and usually log into the Forum first...you need a name and a password separate from the blog...sign in do your thing and then log off and close down if you want to go to the blogs just log on again sounds a bit complicated it took me a while...looking forward to hearing form you again

Aha! Dashed cunning, these webmasters... The moment I recover from my hangover, I shall attend to this.

Mel.[Meltemi] looks forward to your input into our POL Forum...You log into the forum separately to the rest of this site...you are either in the Gallery/Blog pages or the Forum...once you join the forum you will automatically be into the forum on bringing up the POL site [Mel. has a minimal grasp of the technicals]...A good read in your blog...I appreciate it.

To get to the forum ...... Log out of the main site e.g here, click on forum and follow instructions .. it is quite a different log on site, confusing, yes! but thats life. Look forward to meeting you there.

By the way, I'd be interested in joining forums, but every time I try I get "Internal Server Error".

This is very true. I have no objection to crinkly stuff. I want it, and I'd quite like it now. But I just hate it when painting, or any other artform, is treated as a series of steps you need to follow to get results: because the results you get won't be yours, but someone else's. I should like to talk about things at greater length, but briefly - I do understand why people buy art dvd's. I've bought a few myself, and find many of them interesting, even absorbing. And they can give one a few ideas. But I really don't want to follow any of them slavishly; and sometimes, even with good artists, the theory side of them just doesn't make any sense. Eg, the eye can get very easily tired by an equality of primary colours in one painting; this from a superb artist, but what on earth does it mean? Crinkly stuff intervenes too in an artist's particular range of colours and brushes. Let's be honest, I mean Terry Harrison. A lovely painter; and a wonderful teacher. But you don't really need his pre-mixed colours, or his extensive array of brushes: they may help, I suppose. But I'd get confused between them all. And you'll learn nothing about colour-mixing if it's all done for you. It's nearly always watercolour, the most popular medium for amateurs, that offer such ranges (leaving Bob Ross to one side). Not an accident, I think. I shall return to the blog & forums and have a more reasoned argument about this! But I don't understand the urge to be yet another amateur artist, having recourse to, eg, watercolour "tricks" or "secrets". That's why I've come to this site, really; I don't think that attitude, which I find depressing, is common here. And the sheer quality of so much of the work on display tends to prove it.

Hello Robert... good to see another oerson with good strong views, you should join in our forum. Dont you think that some of these sites./classes with the do as I do info, is for people "who want to paint" and think by copying someone slavishly they will be able to paint. They do not realise what a long and arduous road they have jumped onto, if they really do want to paint. But most are quite happy producing the stuff they copy, so OK that is fine, you and I, and I think a lot of people on ths site are not of that ilk. Guess what though, the folk encouraging the copiers are probably making lots of the crinkly stuff.

Well, I shan't be taking tips from site number two (the Expert box, or something like that - the fact that I can't remember it shows how much I took it to heart). Nor would I want to copy anyone else. However: the great thing about looking at how others do what they do, apart from the pleasure it can give, is that it gives you a nice rest from actually doing it yourself. In fact, I find it impossible to copy anyone - for better or for worse. And I agree, that's probably a good thing. Good I may or may not be; unique ... well, modesty forbids such a claim. The sites that horrify me are those that follow the Bob Ross school, who precisely tell you how to "paint in the style of...", and it's hardly surprising that the work of those who follow him always looks the same, as though it came from some Nordic, or more likely North American, never-never land, where "happy little trees" seem to belong to no discernible species. Don't like knocking it, because Ross and his disciples have probably brought a lot of pleasure to people, but it's no way to become "your own unique artist", as you well put it. Any website demo, like any opinion, needs to be treated with some discernment; but I don't think that means avoiding them all: just choosing carefully between them; and not following any of them slavishly. And the same could be said of art schools, but I'm not going down that road.

Phil your comments always make me smile. Keep it up. angela

Hi Robert you are among friends here, all you have to do is keep your blog open by adding to it...post your comments in other blogs...join in on The Forum, put your art in The Gallery... As for paint along with artist xxx...paint in the style of artist yyy...paint using medium zzz....on surface aaa...just get on with it paint what feels right and become your own unique artist...the alternative is a member of a sheep or goat herd...perhaps?