Beginning to Paint

This is the blog of one emerging artist. All artists have beginnings. This is mine.......

As an only child until nearly 10, I learned to amuse myself. A favorite pastime was drawing, painting, using simple paints, crayons, pastels, and chalk. Art was my favorite class, and my work was sometimes used by teachers as an example for the other students to follow.

With high school came the difficult decision to choose one elective in the first year. I chose music over my beloved art, and joined the band. What with prerequisites and all, I never did study art in school after that. I don't regret learning the flute, however, and I still play from time to time.

The years flew by as I sewed, spun, knit, cross stitched, wove and raised a family. It wasn't until 1995 as a single mom in my mid thirties that the call to paint could no longer be ignored. I bought a calendar done by an artist in a painting style I admired, to see what would happen if I tried to copy her work. In a day and a half I had completed my first painting; a copy of a work by Marilyn Simandle, shown above.

It would be six years before I painted again.