There are unlimited ways to express yourself, and I am enjoying blundering through some new and old ones. I have recently started to pursue professional acting as a, yet again, new career. I have been writing and singing some new songs, which I haven't done in quite some time. And here, I am even posting a current blog for the first time in nearly a year! Thank you, Sarah, for suggesting I get back into this old blog format. The absolutely brand new artistic expression I have been enjoying for almost the last year (10 months is close enough) is painting. Like so many things, I wish I had taken art classes when I was in school. I have drawn pencil sketches, set designs, some costume designs, and doodles for many years, but oil and acrylics and brushes and canvases are a new language to me.
I have found myself making beginning amateur mistakes with almost every effort. I have called my daughter, and posted questions to You Tube all along the way. But experimenting with a different idea almost every time I squeeze a tube onto my plate has been a very enjoyable journey of discovery. I am hooked. To now, I have found two universal responses to this new medium. One, I really don't know when I am done with a painting. I have asked several other artists how they know when they are done. For me, it more like a cat playing with a mouse, I just sort of lose interest in batting it around after awhile, and move on to the next thing.
And Two, I am rarely sure when I am finished if I like it a lot or not. But fortunately, the paintings I've done each sort of grow on me the more I look at them. Some I end up liking quite a bit.
I have had encouragements from artist friends in Gardenstown, Scotland that have been important in my love of the process, so thanks Katherine and Jamie and Janet and Helen.
Everyone should be so lucky when making something out of nothing. There might even be a showing of my work in a wonderful little gallery there in the near future, and that would be the best kind of encouragement.
So, I will be continuing to learn how to better express what I feel and see. I have good examples for both in my daughter, Sarah, and my grandson, Walker. Both show a great freedom with their brush strokes that i hope to emulate someday!
I have found myself making beginning amateur mistakes with almost every effort. I have called my daughter, and posted questions to You Tube all along the way. But experimenting with a different idea almost every time I squeeze a tube onto my plate has been a very enjoyable journey of discovery. I am hooked. To now, I have found two universal responses to this new medium. One, I really don't know when I am done with a painting. I have asked several other artists how they know when they are done. For me, it more like a cat playing with a mouse, I just sort of lose interest in batting it around after awhile, and move on to the next thing.
