Being an art teacher is pretty amazing. You get to see children literally go from being barely awake to spastic in about the same time it takes you to say the words, “We are painting today.” There must be some inert feeling in all of us to love the joy of pushing paint around. It doesn’t matter if we make something beautiful because the process of creating and expressing ourselves is what brings us joy. As an art teacher I also see a lot of kids who will love creating art one minute only to be in tears the next. They are so frustrated that what they are doing is not working out. I always tell them that they just need to remember that everyone makes mistakes and that they should just enjoy the time they have being creative. It seems to work about 95% of the time.
Recently I went to one of those paint your pottery places. If you ever take me there be prepared to sit for hours because I enjoy painting and felt I could have easily stayed longer if we did not have our children with us. As I sat there I noticed how many different types of people were in there. Young families, grammys and one middle aged man. Huh? Why did this shock me? Let the poor man paint. Now I really wanted to stay to see if he could actually paint but I could not. It would look too obvious if I was done and just staring at him. Ha. But, case in point, maybe he too just wants to be creative.
I have also heard many stories of anxious painters who rush out and by kits and canvas only to realize they painted something they hate. The paint goes to the back of storage never to be touched again. I guess as an artist when I mess up a painting I either have the skills to fix it or paint over it. I have messed up many but the only part that frustrates me is the time I wasted even though I know I learned something about my mistake. Sometimes I too just want to push paint around and enjoy the process.
So, onto the climatic part of this story. I really do not like paint by numbers. I have given in to the pleads of my children and bought them anyway. They are cheap and cheesy but they keep them entertained for a while. But, I can never get over the CHEAP part. We always end up with paint that dries out, or runs out. If they ever get the painting completed we have no way of hanging it on the wall!! How frustrating to have a piece of art the kids have worked on for hours either end up half painted in my studio or painted and in their toy box. I keep thinking there must be something out there that is better.
So after waking up one morning I decided I could do something about this. I know right? By the time my first cup of coffee was finished I had researched and decided I was going to do my own line of paint by numbers. So far the process is very time consuming!! I have two kid designs done and I am working on some adult ones. If you are looking for teddy bears holding flowers or deer running wild in the forest you will not find them in my designs. I am interested in delivering a quality canvas, quality paints and a REAL paintbrush to my package deal. Look for them SOON on www.etsy.com/shop/spluckygirl. Until then I will be putting paint into tiny little pots and driving my family and friends crazy with my neverending questions.
