P Is For Painting (A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015)

I've recently started to paint. Actually, I've been delving into all areas of art. I have tagged my favorite places to practice and learn about art:  Painting With A Twist, Peniot's Palette, That Art Place Belton.  I have also taken Community Education Classes at my local High School and the Cultural Arts Center. Each community has offerings for people of all talent levels and ages. I hope you are aware of those in your community.

I have no talent for art. But I have tons of fun. Don't get me wrong, there comes a time in every project, whether it be acrylic on canvas, charcoal line drawings, clay or premade ceramics, etc., where I hit a wall. I liken it to the wall runners hit. For me it usually stops me in my tracks about two thirds of the way through the project. I look at it and think, This is crap. There is no salvaging this mess. But I have found, if I step back--if I walk away for a minute or two--I can regain perspective. Even when I come back and see it really is crap, if I sit back down and continue to work through the wall, I almost always love the final result.

That's not to say it's without imperfection--there are plenty of those! But those imperfections teach me what to do next time. What to avoid next time. And sometimes, more often than not, the imperfection is embraced. It is included in the new design. The new vision. As is.

I promised a light-hearted poem today. For me, the only poem more fun than a Haiku is a Limerick--but alas the Limerick would not reveal itself.  Instead, I wrote a couple of Haiku.  The Haiku say the same thing--I just couldn't decide which one I liked better, so here are both Haiku and an Acrostik Poem on painting (they are more introspective than the lighthearted romp of a limerick I had hoped for):

painting haiku 1

painting is like life
single brush strokes combining
to compose a whole


painting haiku 2

brush strokes life events
combined composing a whole
art imitates life


Painting Acrostic 


Painting is my new obsession
Although I have little talent.
Imitating the Masters with each new lesson--
New techniques will be mine if I'm valiant.
Then one day I will look back and say,
I have learned about life through art. 
New canvas is like a fresh new day--
Grabbing both, I painted with heart!


This post is my contribution to the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015, in which bloggers all over the world take the challenge to post every Monday through Saturday during the month of  April using the successive letters of the alphabet as their inspiration. Tomorrow is Sunday. On Monday the post will be Q.

I can only imagine what Q will bring.....