So this is my first blog. I don’t profess to being a writer in any way, shape or form but somehow , when I started to create this new website I felt compelled to start. Perhaps it is because art and words have always had some connection for me. I have, like so many of us, had an idea floating around in the back of my head for some time now, a dream of writing a book and illustrating it myself. It‘s on the back burner for now as my main efforts are on creating art, art that represents ME.
I will offer my apologies right now for any grammatical errors you may find hidden amongst my ramblings but nevertheless I’m diving right in like an excited young teenager on their first adventure into the big wide world.
I decided my first blog would be about how becoming an artist has benefitted me personally. Well where do I begin? My husband and I have discussed this many times together. Firstly , it helped me through rehabilitation following a serious illness some years ago and I am eternally grateful for its arrival. It introduced me to new friends, some in my locality and many through the art community on social media. I find this online community of artists to be so supportive and friendly. Art challenges me, frustrates me, inspires me but most of all makes me happy and it has become an essential part of my very being that I am passionate about.
But the overriding and totally unexpected benefit for me has been how learning to paint has seemingly given me new eyes. Who knew it! ’Painting Goggles’ make you SEE in a completely new way. You don’t just look at a landscape that’s unfolding before you and utter how pretty the view is, you see the shapes the fields are forming, the texture of the scree on the mountainside, the yellow ochre with just a little touch of cadmium red and titanium white in the sand. I remember when I first started painting, initially with watercolours, I would drive my husband mad as we were driving along in the car, stating how the sky had a touch of Rose Madder in it today. Painting Goggles are right up there with the oft quoted phrase ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ and I for one am so glad I’ve been given them.
Do you have a passion and if so how does it benefit you?