I have really missed this part of me lately:
Actually, it's probably been longer than just lately. I really haven't painted since I was called to teach seminary a little over 3 years ago. There was always so much to do for seminary, and then I went back to school, and.......I can always come up with more excuses. But in reality, I have been a bit busy the past few years, and painting is not something you can really just do for a few minutes here and there.
Since I'm not teaching seminary anymore, I'm really hoping to get back to painting. At least a little bit. Painting has been good for me, it makes me be loose and flexible instead of tight and planned out. It puts me in that part of the brain that is creative where I can figure out other things while I'm painting. Kind of like what running does for me.
I started watercolor painting a couple of months after we moved to Arizona. I'd been saying for a long, long time that I wanted to learn how but had never taken the plunge. I was scared, truth be told. Scared that I wouldn't be good. Scared that I'd fail. Scared that I wouldn't be able to be good at it right away (because, you know, everyone's good at everything they try the first time). For me, stick figures have been about the extent of my artist-ic ability. So my wonderful husband gave me all the supplies I'd need to take a watercolor class at Michaels for Christmas that year. Then I had to do it. Because he had spent money and everything. :o) I signed up for a class in January and just about cancelled it about twenty hundred times. I was so nervous that first class, it was ridiculous. But I went. And I did okay. So I went again, but to a different teacher who had started teaching, and I loved it! She was so great at teaching beginners, which was definitely what I was.
Then I decided to go back to school to become a Certified Personal Trainer. And wouldn't you know, I had class during the time watercolor classes were taught. So it was put on hold again. For about three years. Because after I was done with school I started my own Personal Training Business.
I got the itch to start watercoloring again but Michaels was only holding cake decorating classes. So I signed up for a class at the local art museum, which was scary because surely these students were real watercolor painters, not beginners like me. But I went anyway and even though I didn't particularly care for my first teacher (she was a bit too tight and rigid for me), I met a really nice lady named Dana. We took another class from a different teacher, and this teacher started teaching out of her home once a week. Dana and I would drive over together (it was a 45 minute drive one way) and would visit as we went. I loved these classes! This teacher was kind of a "whatever" type of teacher and taught me a lot. She was always very encouraging and helpful and let me be me. She got me to loosen up with my painting, which has transferred to other areas of my life. But right after I was called to teach seminary she changed her classes to Monday nights, which is Family Home Evening night for us. So that wouldn't work anymore, which led to this second three year break (hmmm...I'm sensing a pattern here).
I have discovered that it's really difficult to find watercolor teachers. And I don't think watercolor painters get the respect they deserve. I went to the Museum of Modern Art and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art while I was in NYC a few weeks ago and there were very, very few watercolor paintings. The guides at the MMA could only find one watercolor painting for me in the whole entire museum. And it's H-U-G-E! That was a bit discouraging.
So, since I can't find a teacher anywhere nearby, I've ordered some instructional books I hope will help me re-learn what I know I've lost the past 3 years. I'm hoping it will be like riding a bike - that it will all come back.
Because I want to get back to doing more of this:
*palette image courtesy of Microsoft Clipart Gallery
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