For the Love of Art!

Recently I blogged about sharing my new found love of watercolours with my husband in 'A Date with Paints'.

A lot of people commented to me that they loved the idea and would be sure to try it out. Myself I know I am guilty of pinning a million ideas to "try out one day" that never make it past my Pinterest Board. But I love to share a good go-getter attitude of someone who sees a good idea and then acts on it straight away.

So here is the beautiful art of my good friend Romie and her husband Khan who were inspired to try out their own Arty date. Isn't it just lovely?

A Date with Paints

Often it is easy to fall into routines that are not exactly good for us. I find this is also true when it comes to how we spend time with others. It is common to routinely go for drinks with friends, eat with family and watch TV with spouse/significant other. These are all things that I enjoy doing, but it doesn't mean that it should become the only way I interact with people. Also, these habits have exceedingly negative effects when indulged in too often. This is why I'm often on the lookout for new activities to try out both for me alone and to share with others. 

Painting and other creative endeavours have been shown to help in emotional and mental development and continued health. They are a positive way in which to relax and are make beautiful results, even if they are more abstract than realistic.

If you have been reading my blog you will remember that I recently took up water colour painting and am having a lot of fun with it. I decided that this would be a great activity to share with Tim. 

To make a day of it I gathered all the supplies needed and surprised him with it all laid out nicely and ready to use. These were water colour palettes, 2 glasses of water (one for rinsing brush, one for adding to paints), brushes in assorted sizes, paper towel, pencils, a sharpener, a rubber, a sharpie and art paper. Having it all prepared also meant "we are doing this now". It's like when you offer someone a cut piece of fruit rather than the whole thing, it's just more appetising / inviting. 

We decided to each draw two pictures in pencil for the other person to paint. Tim drew a fruit bowl and a Monkey Wizard for me and I drew him an owl and flowers. It's funny what the other one comes up with and it was a twist rather than just sitting down to paint. The monkey wizard was funny but I really enjoyed the geometric accuracy of Tim's fruit verses my usual 'rustic' style. It was also a way for me to mix things up with my painting. Tim also expressed that he would never draw and/or paint flowers himself but he really enjoyed the possibility of exploring techniques that the very simple daisy design affored him. Also he found my simple yet quirky little owl fun. Overall Tim very much enjoyed painting with me and said he would like to do it more regularly. 

After we finished our activity I got inspired to paint some more and I was very happy with my windmills from Consuegra. We were just there in September and took some great photos. I recreated it based on sight from the picture below.

Here is my version

I also sometimes do some googling for inspiration and here is one I did based on a Pinterest find (see link here).

Dabbling in Watercolours

You may remember when I was in Baltimore I wrote about finding a little art store and stocking up on watercolour paints. That was more than a month ago now and I have to say I am very happy with my investment. 

Usually I tend to get very excited about starting a new project and spend lots of time thinking about it and even planning only to give up on it shortly after starting. It's not that I am fickle or easily bored, I mean I can find entertainment in very simple things for hours. The problem is that often the actual activity does not live up to the expectations I created. Also just because you want to like something doesn't mean that you will. 

However so far I have really enjoyed playing with these paints. I have to call it playing since unfortunately it turns out I am not an undiscovered genius artist. At the same time the enjoyment and relaxation that I have gotten out of these paints is priceless, so I am very glad I bought them.

I guess the point of this post is that if you have a bit of a curious desire to start a new hobby or activity don't be deterred. Don't worry if you are a habitual hobby starter who can't seem to follow them through. I think this is just pent up creative energy that is looking for an outlet. And who knows, maybe this will be the hobby you finally stick to ;-)

Here is some of my dabbling so far. There is a lot of room for improvement, which means more painting for me, yay!