Steven Pattingale's Stubborn Hope

Perfect is overrated

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

1992 - Residence. Painting sits on easel the whole school year. I was using the grid copy method. In theory when all the little squares were done it would come together. I don’t know if I added to it, but I sure didn’t finish it.

Perfectionist freeze. When you expect perfection from yourself and you look at your canvas but you do not dare put paint on the canvas. How can you? You know your feeble brushstrokes are not going to create something that matches up to your vision. The same thing can happen with any creative endeavour. Example: years back I had an idea for a website that would feature the work of creatives and include a way for them to be compensated for their work. I even had a name for it, Pass the Hat. I never created it. But someone else did and Patreon is the name they attached to it. Ideas are easy! Putting the work in to make the thing is hard.

Recommended clicking

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You like what you see here and you want to see other people’s cool websites or things that have interested me. Keep reading! Below are recommendations!

(https://traverses.GitHub.io) This wide ranging site goes from photography to programming!

(https://questionablecontent.net) by Jeph Jacques, is a wonderful internet comic older than some of my co-workers!

(https://Whatever.scalzi.com) by John and Athena Scalzi, this excellent blog has decades of content.

Enjoy the thought provoking work at (https://ShannonDonovan.ca) by the eponymous artist, photographer, and videographer!

Happy little trees

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In case you missed the previous blog post, here’s how it started:

And I stopped here:

I decided it needed a tree in the foreground to push everything back and create a sense of depth. Then I added a couple rocks in the water. Then I thought why not a couple happy little trees on the left! Then one more tree on the left to push things back there too. Without thinking about it the living tree and the dead one sort of mirror each other. Neato!

Spoiler free review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I liked it. I enjoyed it, and was entertained. The end.

Oh wait you want more? Ok. Some of the first comics I ever read were Spider-Man comics. I bought them for years amassing a large collection. I watched every Spider-Man movie in the theatre. Some of them more than once. This movie did not disappoint. It had heart, it asked good questions. It respected the previous movies without requiring you to watch the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe. The crowd in my theatre were big Spider-Fans; they cheered, gasped and clapped at all the appropriate times.

Painting process

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to this blog post! I am going to share my painting process and progress on my most recent painting. I have no formal training or art education, but I have watched several seasons of the Joy of Painting by Bob Ross.

Because Bob Ross did, I start with an 18x24 canvas. Once in a while I try different size canvases, but this size feels very natural after over a year of using 18x24 almost exclusively. Even though Canada uses the metric system the influence of our southern neighbour is felt here too, our art supply stores sell canvases that are measured in inches. In other parts of the world are canvases measured in centimeters? \

July 24th, 2026 blog post

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hello fellow humans. I am very happy to announce that I added even more content! Oh yeah! Enjoy! I hope you are enjoying seeing more and more and more of my work! Spanning decads of photography and a year or so of oil painting there is even more to share in the future!

Once I build a contact me page or commenting or something you can let me know what you think.

All about the Pentiums

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In addition to painting, I also love creating images through photography. The photographs uploaded to the site are from decades of different image capture devices. We have images that were captured on film and scanned, images from low res point and shoot digital cameras, images from various decent DSLR cameras and even images from cell phone cameres. I have heard it said that the best camera is the one that you have with you, and cell phone cameras are a prime example.

My First Post

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:11:00 -0300

Hey this site is a test and a learning experience for me.
I painted these oil paintings. They are painted in an a la prima style.
This style was popularized by Bill Alexander and Bob Ross.

I think I like sunsets. Hmm.

Paintings by Steven Pattingale

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:08:44 -0300

Gallery arranged in reverse chronological order, now giving you the new stuff first! Enjoy!

2026-09-06 I loved Season 18 Episode 2 of the Joy of Painting. The cloud painting demo kicked ass, so I had to try it! I dropped a super pale sky with a pale cadmium yellow, then an orangier cad yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, permanent red, and topped with pthalo blue. Blended lots over homemade Magic White/Liquid White. It’s around 50/50 titanium white and linseed oil. Dark clouds, cloud highlights and some hills. Grassy meadow framed by bushes and trees. The bottom of the painting had been pre-treated with black gesso. I added some thin pthalo blue over the dry gesso. I got to the bottom thinking a smooth lake and then these waves exploded off the one inch brush!