Enjoy your art

As I have said many times here, on my web site, and in my forum, I am no expert and can only share my own thoughts as I see them. One of the things that I have come to realise is that many beginners take an untrained stab at doing a quick painting/sketch, don't like the end result and instantly decide they can't do it. Of course, these same people once stepped into a car, turned the key, jerked uncontrollably as the engine fought the gearbox, and then walked away concluding that they couldn't drive. Right?

The issue isn't that a complete beginner either can or can't paint but that they should want to, and want to learn. OK, so the very best of artists have an inbuilt talent that the rest of us can only envy. The sort of talent that cannot be taught. Likewise, most of us are incapable of driving a Formula 1 racing car, but that isn't what we expect of ourselves when we first sit in the driving seat. So why should we expect it of our painting?

We can ALL paint. Understandably, some will be able to paint better than others. Better? What is 'better'? Why does it need to be a competition? The answer is, it doesn't. The only thing that matters is that the novice artist wants to paint and enjoys painting. If the end result is a complete mess, so what? If the artist spent an enjoyable and absorbing few hours sketching it out and adding paint to canvas, then isn't that all that matters? Of course it's an added thrill when the end result is pleasant to look at, but that must be of secondary importance.

I posted some of my earliest 'disasters' on my web site in the hope of showing others that it's ok to make mistakes and there is always something to learn from every painting we do.