I hear from a lot of folks who are intrigued and want to try their hand at painting, but either don’t know where or how to start OR have convinced themselves that they are just not “creative” or “talented.” Well, that’s just plain not true! Everyone is creative, they may just not have used those muscles lately, thinking they have to come out of the gate creating perfect masterpieces (whatever those are!), like all the “artists” they see. Guess what? YOU are an ARTIST! Yes, I speak truth. It’s all in your mindset.
Every young child is playful, will dive into paint and making things, without every thinking they are not good enough or talented enough — they just believe that they are. In fact, it doesn’t even really enter their minds that they aren’t capable, because they live in the moment and they just do it, BECAUSE IT’S FUN! So the secret is to go back to that time when you were a playful child and did fun things just because they were fun! You didn’t care how your creations stacked up against anyone else’s. You were completely enjoying life in the moment — I know we can all get back to that place again.
And here’s another secret about “talented artists” — they didn’t start out that way! Yes, even Picasso!! They put in the hours, the months, the years, the decades of practice, practice, practice in order to become proficient in their art. You wouldn’t expect to be a concert violinist the first time you picked up a violin, would you? It’s the same for athletes, dancers, doctors, heck, ANY KIND OF PRACTICE — it takes lots of practice to become good, and the more we practice the better we get. Go back to Insta and search the #31daysofpainting and #15daysofpainting hashtags to see the diversity of styles and experience levels of all the players. They had just one thing in common: THEY WERE BRAVE. They put themselves out there and shared their journeys and reaped tremendous personal rewards and connections. And you know what, you can be brave and do this too. I WANNA SEE YOU BE BRAVE!! So stop stopping yourself and just start with us!!!