Jacksonville Beach Pier - Commission

A (very late!) Fathers Day gift/commission for my Dad, who asked me if I could paint him a picture of the Jacksonville Beach Pier. He grew up there, and my family lived there from 2009-2011. My Dad has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to Arkansas and it's lack of ocean, so maybe in some small way this will make it - and me, feel a little less far away :]

This was my first time ever really using oil paint (so messy - holy shit!) as well as the first time I've done any kind of more specifically landscape-y painting in a long time! At around age 11/12 or so, I used to wake up on Saturday mornings real early so I could catch "The Joy of Painting" with Bob Ross, and was inspired to use my acrylic paint with more of that same approach - Never having used oils till this point, I could never quite understand firsthand how he could get things to blend so well! lol It was really nice to just be able to relax and do something more focused on colors/textures vs. content/concept, and while (I'll say it again!) very messy, working with oils was super cool. Having to thin paint and clean brushes with paint thinner as oppose to water was a bit annoying (and smelly before I got a good paint thinner!) but as with anything, surely you get into your own rhythm the more you use it.
anyhow, really fun and therapeutic!
Enjoy :]