Age, wisdom and watercolour

Today I am doubling up again, joining in with Amanda at Write Alm (today’s daily prompt is ‘In Motion’) and Dawn for Make and Listen Along (a day late but better a day late than never). Trippling up, really, by joining in on Carla Sonheim’s workshop. It’s the way I roll these days.I am so very excited to be a part of 2014 Year of the Fairy Tale. Since November when I started this blog I have been falling in love with creativity again and it has saved me in so many ways. I have made a promise to myself that by the end of this year I will be self-employed doing what I’ve always wanted to do which is art.

It’s a dream I’ve had since a child.

No. That’s not right.

It’s a dream I’ve had since I decided not to pursue it.

I did photography instead because I was good at it and it made money. I never had my heart in it.

Out of misery and desperation comes death or a new life. You get to choose. I chose a new life, a new direction.

I forced myself to use even five minutes of time to do something with a pencil. I pop in my earphones, plug them into my phone and choose a favourite radio station (which happens to be the new Radio 96.5 right now), zone out and put pencil to paper. I had no idea how much those five minutes would change my entire day. And from there I made the promise to myself to change my year and my life. It’s freeing. Finally!

It took many years for me to come full circle from making art to making art again and I’ve become wise in those years. That makes me smile inward. I have become wise as a mother and as a home educator and have begun teaching myself to take the time to learn, just like I guide my boys to do. Take the time. Enjoy the journey.

While at art school I never took a painting class and I was never interested in painting. It was too obviously the ‘art’ of art. You know what I mean? Painting seems to be the quintessential medium of Art. It’s what is seen as Art. I didn’t want to be quintessential. What can I say, I think most creatives want to be different in some way. I think most creatives are also stubborn and fiercely guard our own creative souls. But there came a time, for me, when I fell in love with paint. Geez. Funny thing is, I’m still falling and it’s fun!

I swallowed my adolescent and fiercely guarded pride and picked up that brush. I didn’t know what I was doing, really, but I did something anyway. I went with my gut and sometimes the result was pretty good, sometimes not. But I did pick up that brush nonetheless and for me that was more than half of the battle.

Using those five minutes to pick up a pencil and then a brush allowed those childhood dreams to come alive again. The dream cogs were turning, being set into motion. Thank goodness for that!

Here we are, or here I am, taking a workshop. I want to learn more and it’s going to be fun, fun, fun! I am going out today to buy a paint brush. Just one. Because they are not cheap, the good ones, I mean. The cheap ones fall apart beginning with the first use.

With age brings wisdom.

With age brings wisdom and watercolour. Crazy. Watercolour is for boring landscapes, right? And still lives, right? Sure it can be for those subjects but it can be so much more and I had no idea! Blessed Be the Interweb! 🙂

I am a Pinterest Peruser. Bigtime. I have found some amazing art inspiration by perusing Pinterest. And although I do believe that being artistic is part natural talent, it is also part learned. This is tough for me at my age (almost 42 – eek!). I have always been an instant gratification kind of gal. That breeds impatience which isn’t the way to always get things done well. While teaching the boys grammar these past years we came upon a wonderful poem:

Work while you work
Play while you play
This is the way to be happy each day

All that you do
Do with your might
Things done by halves
Are never done right

Shazzam! Hit in the face with that one. How can I get my boys to do things well so they don’t have to do it again if I don’t do the same?  I guess I could but I’d be a bit of a hypocrite. I love that poem and we say it together all the time.

During this workshop I will learn techniques but I want to start learning those now, now, now! I did the smart thing for me and borrowed a book from the library and instead of trying to automatically emulate a painting I started at the beginning emulating painting techniques instead. I am glad I took the time to do so because I now have some samples of brush techniques to pull from when I am painting. Why didn’t I do this before? Silly girl!

This is one of the best lessons for me not just for painting but life as well. Sometimes taking the time to learn the bits and pieces that make up the whole can actually make ‘the whole’ part take less time and come out even better. Work while you work, play while you play…

The dream cogs are turning, slowly yes, but turning nonetheless. And they are going to take me places I’ve always dreamed I’d be. It only took four decades! Better late than never!

The time just turned 11:11am. The boys and I always make a wish at that time. I love seeing them stop, take a moment and close their eyes and wish. I hope they never lose sight of what they wish for.

Happy creating!