essay on i love to paint

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Why i love painting, how art has touched my life in the best way..

The clock strikes midnight, and I dip my brush into a dab of acrylic blue, adding color to my otherwise featureless sky. Dragging it across the canvas, leading down to the house on the horizon. My canvas is already filled with a sketch and now all I need to do is add color and shades to give it dimension.

Art is amazing to me. Every perception of a subject and style is unique in its own way. Never is a piece exactly like another when hand-painted and drawn. When looking at a bowl of fruit, for instance, you could create a copy of what you see before you as perfect as possible, or you could tweak the image. As an artist, you have the ability to make anything happen if you can both imagine it and execute it.

Out of the wide array of genres and styles to paint and create, be it realism, classical, pop art, etc., I myself have always been fond of abstract. With the very definition being "existing in thought or as an idea, but not having a physical or concrete existence," the style of the abstract can be left to the imagination and has no true form. With every artist's interpretation of the world before them but without structure or defining qualities, everyone piece is a new thought. Abstract pieces often make people look deeper into the color scheme or the elements provided, to make some sort of sense out of a painting. With everyone's opinion being different abstract pieces always keep people guessing.

In my own personal experience, I first started art class my junior year. I was always interested in drawing or doodling, but I chose the chorus instead and stuck with it from sixth grade to sophomore year. I wasn't good at the time with anything really, so when I turned in my homework for Art 1, I just marked 'abstract' and my teacher liked it. I liked it, too, so she helped me expand my mind and really start creating more thought-provoking pieces. I first started taking the real picture, but changing the colors. Then I started getting boxier, and then I started getting more colorful, and then I kind of just stopped making the real picture and just went crazy with color. Accepted into AP my senior year because of my work habit, I developed my skill over the summer and came in with pieces ready. I was very prolific and actually turned my dad's basement into my studio, from ideas I wrote down in my phone.

But in mid-November, I started to feel depressed and refused to acknowledge it. It got worse over time and as I sunk into a deep depression and suicidal thoughts haunted my mind. I used to not be okay with talking about my emotions and turned to abstract art as a coping mechanism. The best part was that I was often praised and felt validated in my class and by my teacher when I presented my pieces. Along with that motivation and praise, I was able to begin to feel okay again.

Painting is a healthy was to express your feelings and calm yourself when times are rough. You get to enjoy your finished product and have pride in your commitment to your creative endeavor. Anyone can be an artist, and the joy is universal. I will always love to create, and I invite you to do the same.

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25 beatles lyrics: your go-to guide for every situation, the best lines from the fab four.

For as long as I can remember, I have been listening to The Beatles. Every year, my mom would appropriately blast “Birthday” on anyone’s birthday. I knew all of the words to “Back In The U.S.S.R” by the time I was 5 (Even though I had no idea what or where the U.S.S.R was). I grew up with John, Paul, George, and Ringo instead Justin, JC, Joey, Chris and Lance (I had to google N*SYNC to remember their names). The highlight of my short life was Paul McCartney in concert twice. I’m not someone to “fangirl” but those days I fangirled hard. The music of The Beatles has gotten me through everything. Their songs have brought me more joy, peace, and comfort. I can listen to them in any situation and find what I need. Here are the best lyrics from The Beatles for every and any occasion.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

The End- Abbey Road, 1969

The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you

Dear Prudence- The White Album, 1968

Love is old, love is new, love is all, love is you

Because- Abbey Road, 1969

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

All You Need Is Love, 1967

Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend

We Can Work It Out- Rubber Soul, 1965

He say, "I know you, you know me", One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come Together- Abbey Road, 1969

Oh please, say to me, You'll let me be your man. And please say to me, You'll let me hold your hand

I Wanna Hold Your Hand- Meet The Beatles!, 1964

It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. They've been going in and out of style, but they're guaranteed to raise a smile

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-1967

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

Strawberry Fields Forever- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Can you hear me? When it rains and shine, it's just a state of mind

Rain- Paperback Writer "B" side, 1966

Little darling, it's been long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it' s been here. Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say it's alright

Here Comes The Sun- Abbey Road, 1969

We danced through the night and we held each other tight, and before too long I fell in love with her. Now, I'll never dance with another when I saw her standing there

Saw Her Standing There- Please Please Me, 1963

I love you, I love you, I love you, that's all I want to say

Michelle- Rubber Soul, 1965

You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all want to change the world

Revolution- The Beatles, 1968

All the lonely people, where do they all come from. All the lonely people, where do they all belong

Eleanor Rigby- Revolver, 1966

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

With A Little Help From My Friends- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better

Hey Jude, 1968

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday

Yesterday- Help!, 1965

And when the brokenhearted people, living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be.

Let It Be- Let It Be, 1970

And anytime you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders

I'll give you all i got to give if you say you'll love me too. i may not have a lot to give but what i got i'll give to you. i don't care too much for money. money can't buy me love.

Can't Buy Me Love- A Hard Day's Night, 1964

All you need is love, love is all you need

All You Need Is Love- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird- The White Album, 1968

Though I know I'll never lose affection, for people and things that went before. I know I'll often stop and think about them. In my life, I love you more

In My Life- Rubber Soul, 1965

While these are my 25 favorites, there are quite literally 1000s that could have been included. The Beatles' body of work is massive and there is something for everyone. If you have been living under a rock and haven't discovered the Fab Four, you have to get musically educated. Stream them on Spotify, find them on iTunes or even buy a CD or record (Yes, those still exist!). I would suggest starting with 1, which is a collection of most of their #1 songs, or the 1968 White Album. Give them chance and you'll never look back.

14 Invisible Activities: Unleash Your Inner Ghost!

Obviously the best superpower..

The best superpower ever? Being invisible of course. Imagine just being able to go from seen to unseen on a dime. Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity to be invisible? Superman and Batman have nothing on being invisible with their superhero abilities. Here are some things that you could do while being invisible, because being invisible can benefit your social life too.

1. "Haunt" your friends.

Follow them into their house and cause a ruckus.

2. Sneak into movie theaters.

Going to the cinema alone is good for your mental health , says science

Considering that the monthly cost of subscribing to a media-streaming service like Netflix is oft...

Free movies...what else to I have to say?

3. Sneak into the pantry and grab a snack without judgment.

Late night snacks all you want? Duh.

4. Reenact "Hollow Man" and play Kevin Bacon.

America's favorite son? And feel what it's like to be in a MTV Movie Award nominated film? Sign me up.

5. Wear a mask and pretend to be a floating head.

Just another way to spook your friends in case you wanted to.

6. Hold objects so they'll "float."

"Oh no! A floating jar of peanut butter."

7. Win every game of hide-and-seek.

Just stand out in the open and you'll win.

8. Eat some food as people will watch it disappear.

Even everyday activities can be funny.

9. Go around pantsing your friends.

Even pranks can be done; not everything can be good.

10. Not have perfect attendance.

You'll say here, but they won't see you...

11. Avoid anyone you don't want to see.

Whether it's an ex or someone you hate, just use your invisibility to slip out of the situation.

12. Avoid responsibilities.

Chores? Invisible. People asking about social life? Invisible. Family being rude? Boom, invisible.

13. Be an expert on ding-dong-ditch.

Never get caught and have the adrenaline rush? I'm down.

14. Brag about being invisible.

Be the envy of the town.

But don't, I repeat, don't go in a locker room. Don't be a pervert with your power. No one likes a Peeping Tom.

Good luck, folks.

19 Lessons I'll Never Forget from Growing Up In a Small Town

There have been many lessons learned..

Small towns certainly have their pros and cons. Many people who grow up in small towns find themselves counting the days until they get to escape their roots and plant new ones in bigger, "better" places. And that's fine. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought those same thoughts before too. We all have, but they say it's important to remember where you came from. When I think about where I come from, I can't help having an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my roots. Being from a small town has taught me so many important lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

1. The importance of traditions.

Sometimes traditions seem like a silly thing, but the fact of it is that it's part of who you are. You grew up this way and, more than likely, so did your parents. It is something that is part of your family history and that is more important than anything.

2. How to be thankful for family and friends.

No matter how many times they get on your nerves or make you mad, they are the ones who will always be there and you should never take that for granted.

3. How to give back.

When tragedy strikes in a small town, everyone feels obligated to help out because, whether directly or indirectly, it affects you too. It is easy in a bigger city to be able to disconnect from certain problems. But in a small town those problems affect everyone.

4. What the word "community" really means.

Along the same lines as #3, everyone is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand when you need one in a small town and to me that is the true meaning of community. It's working together to build a better atmosphere, being there to raise each other up, build each other up, and pick each other up when someone is in need. A small town community is full of endless support whether it be after a tragedy or at a hometown sports game. Everyone shows up to show their support.

5. That it isn't about the destination, but the journey.

People say this to others all the time, but it takes on a whole new meaning in a small town. It is true that life is about the journey, but when you're from a small town, you know it's about the journey because the journey probably takes longer than you spend at the destination. Everything is so far away that it is totally normal to spend a couple hours in the car on your way to some form of entertainment. And most of the time, you're gonna have as many, if not more, memories and laughs on the journey than at the destination.

6. The consequences of making bad choices.

Word travels fast in a small town, so don't think you're gonna get away with anything. In fact, your parents probably know what you did before you even have a chance to get home and tell them. And forget about being scared of what your teacher, principle, or other authority figure is going to do, you're more afraid of what your parents are gonna do when you get home.

7. To trust people, until you have a reason not to.

Everyone deserves a chance. Most people don't have ill-intentions and you can't live your life guarding against every one else just because a few people in your life have betrayed your trust.

8. To be welcoming and accepting of everyone.

While small towns are not always extremely diverse, they do contain people with a lot of different stories, struggle, and backgrounds. In a small town, it is pretty hard to exclude anyone because of who they are or what they come from because there aren't many people to choose from. A small town teaches you that just because someone isn't the same as you, doesn't mean you can't be great friends.

9. How to be my own, individual person.

In a small town, you learn that it's okay to be who you are and do your own thing. You learn that confidence isn't how beautiful you are or how much money you have, it's who you are on the inside.

10. How to work for what I want.

Nothing comes easy in life. They always say "gardens don't grow overnight" and if you're from a small town you know this both figuratively and literally. You certainly know gardens don't grow overnight because you've worked in a garden or two. But you also know that to get to the place you want to be in life it takes work and effort. It doesn't just happen because you want it to.

11. How to be great at giving directions.

If you're from a small town, you know that you will probably only meet a handful of people in your life who ACTUALLY know where your town is. And forget about the people who accidentally enter into your town because of google maps. You've gotten really good at giving them directions right back to the interstate.

12. How to be humble .

My small town has definitely taught me how to be humble. It isn't always about you, and anyone who grows up in a small town knows that. Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight, and since there's so few of us, we're probably best friends with everyone so we are as excited when they get their moment of fame as we are when we get ours.

13. To be well-rounded.

Going to a small town high school definitely made me well-rounded. There isn't enough kids in the school to fill up all the clubs and sports teams individually so be ready to be a part of them all.

14. How to be great at conflict resolution.

In a small town, good luck holding a grudge. In a bigger city you can just avoid a person you don't like or who you've had problems with. But not in a small town. You better resolve the issue fast because you're bound to see them at least 5 times a week.

15. The beauty of getting outside and exploring.

One of my favorite things about growing up in a rural area was being able to go outside and go exploring and not have to worry about being in danger. There is nothing more exciting then finding a new place somewhere in town or in the woods and just spending time there enjoying the natural beauty around you.

16. To be prepared for anything.

You never know what may happen. If you get a flat tire, you better know how to change it yourself because you never know if you will be able to get ahold of someone else to come fix it. Mechanics might be too busy , or more than likely you won't even have enough cell service to call one.

17. That you don't always have to do it alone.

It's okay to ask for help. One thing I realized when I moved away from my town for college, was how much my town has taught me that I could ask for help is I needed it. I got into a couple situations outside of my town where I couldn't find anyone to help me and found myself thinking, if I was in my town there would be tons of people ready to help me. And even though I couldn't find anyone to help, you better believe I wasn't afraid to ask.

18. How to be creative.

When you're at least an hour away from normal forms of entertainment such as movie theaters and malls, you learn to get real creative in entertaining yourself. Whether it be a night looking at the stars in the bed of a pickup truck or having a movie marathon in a blanket fort at home, you know how to make your own good time.

19. To brush off gossip.

It's all about knowing the person you are and not letting others influence your opinion of yourself. In small towns, there is plenty of gossip. But as long as you know who you really are, it will always blow over.

Grateful Beyond Words: A Letter to My Inspiration

I have never been so thankful to know you..

I can't say "thank you" enough to express how grateful I am for you coming into my life. You have made such a huge impact on my life. I would not be the person I am today without you and I know that you will keep inspiring me to become an even better version of myself.

You have taught me that you don't always have to strong. You are allowed to break down as long as you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. When life had you at your worst moments, you allowed your friends to be there for you and to help you. You let them in and they helped pick you up. Even in your darkest hour you showed so much strength. I know that you don't believe in yourself as much as you should but you are unbelievably strong and capable of anything you set your mind to.

Your passion to make a difference in the world is unbelievable. You put your heart and soul into your endeavors and surpass any personal goal you could have set. Watching you do what you love and watching you make a difference in the lives of others is an incredible experience. The way your face lights up when you finally realize what you have accomplished is breathtaking and I hope that one day I can have just as much passion you have.

SEE MORE: A Letter To My Best Friend On Her Birthday

The love you have for your family is outstanding. Watching you interact with loved ones just makes me smile . You are so comfortable and you are yourself. I see the way you smile when you are around family and I wish I could see you smile like this everyday. You love with all your heart and this quality is something I wished I possessed.

You inspire me to be the best version of myself. I look up to you. I feel that more people should strive to have the strength and passion that you exemplify in everyday life.You may be stubborn at points but when you really need help you let others in, which shows strength in itself. I have never been more proud to know someone and to call someone my role model. You have taught me so many things and I want to thank you. Thank you for inspiring me in life. Thank you for making me want to be a better person.

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life..

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Don't freak out

This is a rule you should continue to follow no matter what you do in life, but is especially helpful in this situation.

Email the professor

Around this time, professors are getting flooded with requests from students wanting to get into full classes. This doesn't mean you shouldn't burden them with your email; it means they are expecting interested students to email them. Send a short, concise message telling them that you are interested in the class and ask if there would be any chance for you to get in.

Attend the first class

Often, the advice professors will give you when they reply to your email is to attend the first class. The first class isn't the most important class in terms of what will be taught. However, attending the first class means you are serious about taking the course and aren't going to give up on it.

Keep attending class

Every student is in the same position as you are. They registered for more classes than they want to take and are "shopping." For the first couple of weeks, you can drop or add classes as you please, which means that classes that were once full will have spaces. If you keep attending class and keep up with assignments, odds are that you will have priority. Professors give preference to people who need the class for a major and then from higher to lower class year (senior to freshman).

Have a backup plan

For two weeks, or until I find out whether I get into my waitlisted class, I will be attending more than the usual number of classes. This is so that if I don't get into my waitlisted class, I won't have a credit shortage and I won't have to fall back in my backup class. Chances are that enough people will drop the class, especially if it is very difficult like computer science, and you will have a chance. In popular classes like art and psychology, odds are you probably won't get in, so prepare for that.

Remember that everything works out at the end

Life is full of surprises. So what if you didn't get into the class you wanted? Your life obviously has something else in store for you. It's your job to make sure you make the best out of what you have.

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On Painting: An Essay by Jim Cogswell

Paint is a living language for me, with grammars and nuances that challenge me beyond any other intellectual or creative pursuit that I have ever experienced.

For some people paint is simply a material, another medium, and a very traditional medium at that. For others it is the Bible — the Holy Writ. Or it is the Constitution. Divine what the Founding Fathers intended and strictly adhere to it, or risk anarchy. For others, it is one minor piece in a complicated art world chess game, a pawn to be moved about in a theoretical construct of art practice. Relevant or irrelevant? Dead or alive?

That is one set of questions that, naively, doesn’t trouble me.

For me, painting as a language and practice is alive and changing all the time.

I study it. I try to keep up with it. I struggle to speak it better. I am thrilled when I hear others speak it well. I love visiting countries where it is spoken. I get excited when I discover someone who is adding another layer to its tapestry of possibilities. And that is happening all the time. Right now. As we speak.

Painting is the magical conjunction of space/​no space; movement in stillness. A balanced experience of absorption and self-awareness. Slow looking.

A painting is both a tangible surface and a perceptual space. Great painters create fluctuating tensions between the experience of seeing surface and depth. The task of doing that well is mammoth.

The territory is well traveled, but the possibilities endless, like this tired language of ours that still manages to produce incisive and ecstatic poetry, the limited chromatic scale that still results in new arrangements of sounds in music, bringing deep feelings into somatic awareness, putting my body in motion, bringing me to tears.

All of it is accomplished within a tight range of restrictions. The restrictions are the source of the poetry and the thrill.

There are many strategies for keeping the viewer in that delicate balance of seeing the painting as both window and surface. Emphasizing paint’s materiality is one of many strategies for calling attention to the physical surface, but that easily can degenerate into gratuitous gesture, the pseudo-heroics of the urgent mark.

A big issue is how to translate the materiality of paint into something that points beyond itself. Allowing the inspirational source itself to provide the gesture while acknowledging the illusion. The tension is the thrill.

Within a painting, color has the capacity to become a noun, one might even say a concept in itself. Color becomes magical and potent when it crosses that threshold from adjective to noun, from quality of thing to thing in itself.

All of these strategies and many more work in tandem with our desire to recognize objects or qualities of experiences, even intangible feelings, within that structure of colored marks on a surface. Those desires are closely tied to our perceptual experiences, ways that the brain is hard wired but also shaped by cultural context, historical exposure.

Looking at a painting is a magnificently dense experience for me. I never tire of it.

Wandering Mist - Inspiration is everything

Art, Design and Inspiration Unlimited

Why do we paint?

December 12, 2010 Filed Under: Inspiration , My Paintings By Ishrath Humairah 39 Comments

This is the question that often comes to my mind… why do we paint?

What makes you paint? Is it because you took to the brush when you were a kid? Did you see a masterpiece so magnificent that you took to the brush like no tomorrow? Why did you not do something else? Why did we choose to paint over many other options available to express? How do people end up painting, in life? Or is it just the one side dominance of brain?

I am not talking science here. The science of art is neither my area of interest nor my cup of tea, at the moment. There are artists who stress upon how methodical and scientific art is. I may climb to that realm, later in life.

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream Vincent van Gogh

What I am more interested now is how art makes you the person that you are – when you paint or when you admire art. I want to know how art starts to speak from within… how art expresses the deep core…. how art translates the messages…. how art works when words fail… and a lot more – for art was when languages were naught. And even today, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Then, is art an urge to express? Is it our failure to master other forms of expression that art gives us the refuge and medium we seek?

Do we artists reject the nuances of language, grammar and words, to express? Do artists want unbridled freedom in expressing and questioning? Do artists want to do something that was never made before? Is this the way we like to be spent? Does making artwork undo the artist? Is art a part of unlearning to enlighten? Does art make us understand the elements better? Does art makes everything simple?

The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting Vincent van Gogh

There are a multitude of emotions that an artist goes through when creating a painting or a sculpture. The joy of seeing ones vision translate with hands, the despair of a wrong brush stroke, the anxiety of using a new color, the confidence of a repeated brushstroke, the tension of a measured stroke, the strain of fine brush work, the stressful judgment of seeing the big picture, the want to create a balance, the stray hair of the brush on canvas, the pace of emotions within, and a lot more….

Art is artist painted. To paint is to show a bit of your soul. Where words fail, colors and strokes convey. Deep seated sub conscious comes to life. It is a way of connecting with your inner self. And more often than not, we remain surprised with what we see.

Like Jerry Fresia said, “we make a mark on the canvas and when we look back, we see something that seemingly was not there a moment ago. And there is that miracle: by virtue of making marks, we have created ourselves a tiny bit more – and we actually can see more, feel more, because we have become more, by that tiny bit”.

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures . Henry Ward Beecher

Sometimes we know what to paint and we begin with it. But as time and colors go by, the outcome is totally different as planned. Sometimes we don’t know what the painting is going to be but start painting anyway… and the outcome is something you had always imagined.

Each painting has its own way of evolving…When the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself . William Baziotes

It is true that once the painting is complete, no matter how much you love it, it is outside of you. All that you held within for that artwork is right in front of your eyes. The entire emotional journey undertaken is right in front of you. A certain part of you has come onto the painting and remains there. Like a child who is born unto you, but is an individual by itself.

It’s not your painting anymore. It stopped being your painting the moment that you finished it. Jeff Melvoin

Art. Love. Truth. The colors to use, the shades to restrain, and the strokes to play with… are what defines the art and his artwork. These, over a period of time become unique to the artist and can never be replicated. If replicated, it remains without soul.

Every artwork created with labour and love, speaks to the person who is meant for it. There are many mass produced paintings, which no matter how beautiful and striking to look at, do not strike a chord anywhere. Try it yourself.

Art that gets produced on a fixed time scale, according to me, is never art. There has to be enough movement of soul for something to be produced. Art cannot be mass produced… until unless lunacy rules.

There are times when a blank canvas can stare at you for a long time and nothing seems to move. The blank canvas remains for a long time to come. And then there are those days when many canvases get consumed in few moments. There is no fixed schedule or timetable to create art.

Body suffers, soul celebrates . To paint is to converse with oneself. I tried to study almond blossoms by Vincent Van Gogh to understand the whys and why not’s of art. As we match his paintings to his life history and the times at which each painting was created, one can sense an immense sense of escape and pleasure of life while at work. Even during his depressing days, the art works seemed to celebrate life. While painting, we live a life within which is much different from what we live outwardly.

Journey of the artists’ art Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. Pablo Picasso

As time goes by, painting chronicles our life. Like a journal – diary, we can see the ups and downs of life and the artists impressions. Of the images that lived within, the medium of expression, the sleight of hand, the madness of work, the evolution of subjects and objects of interest and the things that they always wanted to convey. Like a painter/ author once wrote: “painting is my predilection, my way or tool to evolve, to “know”.

If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, there I am. There’s nothing behind it. Andy Warhol

When I look back at my drawings and paintings, I see a person so far and distant – that was once me. Now, the style, subject, composition, and fervour have evolved. Should this be called the growth or evolution of the person or the artist? I don’t know. But change is there, well chronicled on the chosen medium of communication – called art. And if someone wants to learn a bit more about the artist, study his art work from the beginning.

Art is not off-the-shelf product. There are some paintings which grow on me after a long time. And this is not because I got used to seeing them.

Once finished and not satisfied with the outcome, I leave it to settle down so that I can come back to it with a better frame of mind and see it in different light or make corrections to it. But more often than not, I end up liking them the way they are – perfectly hung on a perfect wall to dry. They seem to be so much in place and peace that I don’t touch or re-touch them.

It makes me wonder if this is true of the buyers too. Shouldn’t the art lovers be spending enough time with the artwork to decide if it is meant for them?

And when someone does like the artwork so much to buy it, after spending some time with it…. does means a lot to the artist… that the art-lover has experienced something with the creation.

When art gives you hidden lessons or mixed messages, it works. Art that tugs your heart has always been the one that never portrayed the obvious. There is no fun in painting the things what you see around the way they are – within the confined dimensions of space-time. Art is about tasting with your eyes.

I am unable to make any distinction between the feeling I get from life and the way I translate that feeling into painting. Henri Matisse

It is when the artist’s vision or imagination extends/ stretches these constraints that his art starts to talk to you. And then makes you feel comfortable or disturbed. Either way, it has spoken to you.

Thoughts on art… to be continued From healing, struggling, binding to liberating… there are so many facets of art. I would love to hear what my dear artists and creative souls think about it or feel within. I keep thinking about it and would like to know your thoughts.

Please do share… and let the journey continue.

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Your Comments I Love!

July 27, 2024 at 7:32 pm

Locate now the top best fitness trainer that are this week available in addition at great prices this week only!

October 4, 2020 at 1:01 pm

Perfectly penned down. All my emotions related to my paintings are clearly explained here by the author. Loved this piece ♥️

July 30, 2020 at 3:28 pm

This is absolutely amazing, one of the best pieces i have read about Art. Thankyou so much for sharing and keep up the amazing work

August 13, 2020 at 10:48 pm

Thank you, Shahmeer. Keep wandering by.

May 14, 2019 at 9:11 pm

Wow , it gives clarity to me , why my feelings is different to my painting, the other one was while painting thoughts comes in as if the paint is talking to me …. your words here are realisation why I do paint and in painting you can see your own self …

July 30, 2019 at 4:42 pm

I am glad I could help in some way… though I am still searching for answers.

January 23, 2019 at 2:40 pm

Wow thank you so much you said I could not put into words❤️

August 13, 2020 at 10:51 pm

And I am thankful to you for sharing this.

October 26, 2018 at 6:54 pm

Oh my God! You spoke my mind.. while reading these lines I felt I was repeating them myself. It’s quite hard to believe there’s someone whose mind is just like mine. I’m happy I read you. I’m happy I met another me.

November 28, 2017 at 1:42 am

Great and true thoughts of an Artist!

July 14, 2017 at 7:23 pm

Enjoyed your comments

July 11, 2017 at 9:44 am

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March 29, 2017 at 9:22 am

http://www.polypedia.ir/language/en-US/User-Profile/userId/193261

February 15, 2017 at 4:14 pm

noooooooooooooooo

December 29, 2016 at 5:59 am

I recently did a painting for a client who wanted to gift it to his friend. For this I charged a very small amount. The painting was well received and appreciated, but after a couple of days the client told me, “Dear, you charged me more, why?”

I was depressed and upset thinking whether an artist must also speak for his paintings. This question arised in me “Why do we paint” and I came across your article.

Thanks, I feel rejuvenated. Robin

August 16, 2016 at 2:39 am

Thanks so much for your intuitive thoughts on painting and the creative force in general. The very essence of humanity is bound to creative abstract thought and the arts are bound to express better than any other activity we can engage in.

April 21, 2016 at 4:07 am

Art is our only salvation from the horror of existence. Each painting is like a journal we write, we paint to heal ourself from the things that hurt us so much, things we’re to scared to ever speak about again.

August 29, 2015 at 6:41 am

What a wonderful article! Could you permit me to reblog it on my blog at http://www.tsquarevelu.wordpress.com ?

August 21, 2015 at 2:48 am

Amazing. I felt many you’ve described. Beautifully expressed. Paint yourself. Thanks for this wonderful article.

I will never stop painting. XOXO

May 10, 2014 at 12:30 pm

I could not have said it better. Thank you for writing this. Not only did you describe the creation process and experience of art perfectly but you may have helped lift the block I have had. https://www.facebook.com/DebNicolaisenArtist?ref=hl

April 22, 2014 at 7:20 pm

I truly enjoyed reading this. I see myself in a lot of it. Thanks so much!

March 24, 2014 at 10:04 am

I’ve often wondered why do I paint?….there are already so many talented painters …..why should I waste my time? But I always crave having an art tool in my hand to express my story and vision of the world…ever since a young child I was self rewarded with my visual expression rather than vocal or written words. Expressing shapes , color, stories or creating three dimensional objects is part of my soul.

March 25, 2014 at 4:13 am

Lois: There will always be thousands of artists around. There will be a million artworks surrounding us. They will inspire us and make feel one with common thread of love that ties us all. Art makes us go beyond the realm of the tangible things. There is something inexplicable about art. It is the language that speaks from within. So it shall continue to tell us of the stories from beyond and sagas within. Keep painting.

October 6, 2013 at 2:05 am

Art is my equilibrium. When i paint my soul goes where my body can’t go.

June 10, 2013 at 10:23 am

I feel what I hear in music of course only through the music I can understand, therefore express that in my paintings.

May 25, 2013 at 11:25 pm

To tell you the truth. I paint and draw because (for some reason) I need to be remembered for my art work. I feel like if my Painting and drawings remain here after I’m gone, I’ll somehow remain with them.

January 10, 2012 at 4:03 am

“life is art and art is life”

April 26, 2011 at 1:59 am

My friend Tony R. Whincup, who is considered by many to be one of the World’s best current abstract artist, summed it up by saying that TRUE ORIGINAL ART is created by cutting off the top of your head, leaning over the canvas and allowing your mind, heart and soul to pour out.

February 6, 2011 at 2:20 pm

Hi!Ishrath,u truly spoke how i feel……….beautifully,ur paintings r mesmerizing!!!!!!!

February 8, 2011 at 5:55 am

Sandhya: Thank you for your feedback… and for wandering by 🙂

December 14, 2010 at 5:10 am

To paint, is to live.

So keep painting………..the world will know of your life, your wonderful self, and most of all the emotions through your eyes.

Keep painting……….forever.

Mystic Peace Poet

December 12, 2010 at 5:37 pm

This blog is exactly what I was searching for to describe my expressions of love in my art. Well done. I shared a link to his blog at http://bleditor.com/bledit.php?bleditID=15487

December 13, 2010 at 4:19 am

Dreamer: Dont you think that no matter how much we write…. there is always something unwrittern… that words can never sum up? Keep expressing for there is always a reason. Thanks for wandering by…

December 12, 2010 at 4:45 pm

Clouds wander in the sky, some pregnant with rain, some tremulous in hope, one wanting to drench parched earth to partaken stupor, another seeking to be spent as a dewrop on a leaf blade while damp earth muses nearby. Whatever be , the sky of life knows everything …..When a brush stroke dies a million deaths, the canvas cavorts with the candlelight of clairvoyant creation. There is no reason…Only treason if potential unfullfilled….Whatver be, Keep painting.. As ever and… as always..in all ways…

December 13, 2010 at 4:20 am

Cloudtrance: “Whatever be , the sky of life knows everything”… and yes it does. Every moment is discovery, joy, agony and ecstacy. Yes, I will keep painting… to keep discovering, learning and unlearning.

[…] http://wanderingmist.com/inspiration/why-do-we-paint/ 18/01/2014 […]

[…] : Mystic What : Why do we paint? Tangy : It is rightly said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Mystic is a paint lover and […]

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To Paint Is to Love Again: Henry Miller on Art and Why Good Friends Are Essential for Creative Work

By maria popova.

Right before I hopped out at my stop, Sheila mentioned one particular book that had made a strong impression early in life, but which she had been unable to find since — Miller’s 1968 lost gem To Paint Is to Love Again ( public library ). Naturally, I tracked down a surviving copy as soon as possible and was instantly enchanted by this rare and wonderful treasure trove of Miller’s paintings — for he was among the famous writers who were drawn to the visual arts, producing such lesser-known treats as J.R.R. Tolkien’s illustrations , Sylvia Plath’s drawings , William Faulkner’s Jazz Age etchings , Flannery O’Connor’s cartoons , Zelda Fitzgerald’s watercolors , and Nabokov’s butterfly studies — enveloped in his devastatingly honest and insightful words on art, sincerity, kindness, hardship, and the gift of friendship.

With his characteristic blend of irreverence, earnestness, and unapologetic wisdom, Miller — who began painting at the age of thirty-seven in 1928, while he was “supposed to be at work on the great American novel” but was yet to publish anything at all, bought his first watercolors and brushes in the midst of poverty, and was soon painting “morning, noon and night” — explores the eternal question of what art is and what makes one an artist.

Somewhere between the great scientist as a master at the art of observation and the writer, whom Susan Sontag memorably defined as “a professional observer,” Miller places the painter:

What is more intriguing than a spot on the bathroom floor which, as you sit emptying your bowels, assumes a hundred different forms, figures, shapes? Often I found myself on my knees studying a stain on the floor — studying it to detect all that was hidden at first sight. No doubt the painter, studying the face of the sitter whose portrait he is about to do, must be astonished by the things he suddenly recognizes in the familiar visage before him. Looking intently at an eye or a pair of lips, or an ear — particularly an ear, that weird appendage! — one is astounded by the metamorphoses a human countenance undergoes. What is an eye or an ear? The anatomy books will tell you one thing, or many things, but looking at an eye or ear to render it in form, texture, color yields quite another kind of knowledge. Suddenly you see — and it’s not an eye or an ear but a little universe composed of the most extraordinary elements having nothing to do with sight or hearing, with flesh, bone, muscle, cartilage.

In this art of seeing Miller finds the essential question of what a painting really is:

A picture… is a thousand different things to a thousand different people. Like a book, a piece of sculpture, or a poem. One picture speaks to you, another doesn’t… Some pictures invite you to enter, then make you a prisoner. Some pictures you race through, as if on roller skates. Some lead you out by the back door. Some weigh you down, oppress you for days and weeks on end. Others lift you up to the skies, make you weep with joy or gnash your teeth in despair.

But in contemplating this spectrum of the viewer’s emotional experience, Miller counters Tolstoy’s idea of “emotional infectiousness” between artist and audience and writes:

What happens to you when you look at a painting may not be at all what the artist who painted it intended to have happen. Millions of people have stood and gazed in open-mouthed wonder at the Mona Lisa. Does anyone know what was going on in Da Vinci’s mind when he did it? If he were to come to life again and look at it with his own two eyes it is dubious, in my mind, that he would know himself precisely what it was that made him present her in this immortal fashion.

And yet the intensity of the artist’s own emotion, Miller argues, is the true lifeblood of art and of optimism about the human spirit:

To paint is to love again. It’s only when we look with eyes of love that we see as the painter sees. His is a love, moreover, which is free of possessiveness. What the painter sees he is duty-bound to share. Usually he makes us see and feel what ordinarily we ignore or are immune to. His manner of approaching the world tells us, in effect, that nothing is vile or hideous, nothing is stale, flat and unpalatable unless it be our own power of vision. To see is not merely to look. One must look-see. See into and around.

He recounts the profound transformation he witnessed within himself when he “first began to view the world with the eyes of a painter” and learned a whole new way of paying attention — a way that lives up to Mary Oliver’s beautiful assertion that attention without feeling … is only a report.” Miller writes:

The most familiar things, objects which I had gazed at all my life, now became an unending source of wonder, and with the wonder, of course, affection. A tea pot, an old hammer, or chipped cup, whatever came to hand I looked upon as if I had never seen it before. I hadn’t, of course. Do not most of us go through life blind, deaf, insensitive? Now as I studied the object’s physiognomy, its texture, its way of speaking, I entered into its life, its history, its purpose, its association with other objects, all of which only endeared it the more… Have you ever noticed that the stones one gathers at the beach are grateful when we hold them in our hands and caress them? Do they not take on a new expression? An old pot loves to be rubbed with tenderness and appreciation. So with an axe: kept in good condition, it always serves its master lovingly.

Unlike his longtime lover and lifelong friend Anaïs Nin, who believed that “if one changes internally, one should not continue to live with the same objects,” Miller extols the gladdening assurance of the old:

I have always cherished old things, used things, things marked by the passage of time and human events. I think of my own self this way, as something much handled, much knocked about, as worn and polished with use and abuse. As something serviceable, perhaps I should say. More serviceable for having had so many masters, so many wretched, glorious, haphazard experiences and encounters. Which explains, perhaps, why it is that when I start to do a head it always turns into a “self-portrait.” Even when it becomes a woman, even when it bears no resemblance to me at all. I know myself, my changing faces, my ineradicable Stone Age expression. It’s what happened to me that interests me, not resemblances. I am a worn, used creature, an object that loves to be handled, rubbed, caressed, stuffed in a coat pocket, or left to bake in the sun. Something to be used or not used, as you like.

Noting that he never dares to call himself a painter and yet he does paint, Miller considers the psychology behind this ambivalent attitude — something at the heart of Ann Truitt’s insightful meditation on the difference between “doing art” and being an artist — and writes:

I turn to painting when I can no longer write. Painting refreshes and restores me; it enables me to forget that I am temporarily unable to write. So I paint while the reservoir replenishes itself.

This, of course, is a strategy that many celebrated creators used — Madeleine L’Engle read science to enrich her writing and Einstein, who termed his creative process “combinatory play,” , is said to have come up with his greatest physics breakthroughs during his violin breaks . But it also makes sense under more formal psychological models of how creativity works, all of which require some form of incubation period, or what Alexander Graham Bell called “unconscious cerebration” — a stage during which “no effort of a direct nature” is made toward one’s creative goal and the mind is instead allowed to perform its essential background processing.

This notion comes very much alive in Miller’s account of those early days when he first became besotted with painting and its singular way of seeing the world:

Though my mind was intensely active, for I was seeing everything in a new light, the impression I had was of painting with some other part of my being. My mind went on humming, like a wheel that continues to spin after the hand has let go, but it didn’t get frazzled and exhausted as it would after a few hours of writing. While I played, for I never looked on it as work, I whistled, hummed, danced on one foot, then the other, and talked to myself. […] It was a joy to go on turning [paintings] out like a madman — perhaps because I didn’t have to prove anything, either to the world or to myself. I wasn’t hepped on becoming a painter. Not at all. I was simply wiggling out of the strait-jacket.

He draws a further contrast between painting and writing in their respective effects on the creator’s psyche:

I enjoy talking to painters more than to writers… Painters give me the impression of being less used up by their daily task than writers or musicians. Also, they use words in a more plastic way, as if conscious of their very substantial originals. When they write … they reveal a poetic touch which writers often lack. Perhaps this is due to living continuously with flesh, textures, objects, and not merely with ideas, abstractions, complexes. Often they are mimes or story tellers, and nearly always good cooks. The writer, on the other hand, is so often pale, awkward, incompetent in everything except the business of putting words together.

The disposition of the painter and the writer, Miller observes with the warm wryness of someone very much aware that he is first a writer, differs not only in their psychic state during creation but also in how each relates to their finished work:

To paint is to love again, live again, see again. To get up at the crack of dawn in order to take a peek at the water colors one did the day before, or even a few hours before, is like stealing a look at the beloved while she sleeps. The thrill is even greater if one has first to draw back the curtains. How they glow in the cold light of early dawn! … Is there any writer who rouses himself at daybreak in order to read the pages of his manuscript? Perish the thought!

And yet Miller notes that many celebrated writers were also “painters, musicians, actors, ambassadors, mathematicians,” of which he observes:

When one is an artist all mediums open up… Every artist worth his salt has his [hobby]. It’s the norm, not the exception.

For Miller, part of the allure of painting lies in its superior, almost primitive sincerity, of which only children and the rare adult artist are true masters — for the same reason that children have a wealth to teach us about risk, failure, and growth . Miller writes:

For me the paintings of children belong side by side with the works of the masters… The work of a child never fails to make appeal, to claim us, because it is always honest and sincere, always imbued with the magic certitude born of the direct, spontaneous approach. […] Paul Klee … had the ability to return us to the world of the child as well as to that of the poet, the mathematician, the alchemist, the seer. In the paintings of Paul Klee we are privileged to witness the miracle of the pedagogue slaying the pedagogue. He learned in order to forget, it would seem. He was a spiritual nomad endowed with the most sensitive palps… He almost never failed, and he never, never, never said too much.

Miller compares his own way of learning to that of children:

We all learn as much as we wish to and no more. We learn in different ways, sometimes by not learning…. My way is by trial and error, by groping, stumbling, questioning.

Noting that very few American painters excite him at all — among the exceptions he admiringly cites Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock — Miller condemns the toxic effect of consumerism, something he had spiritedly condemned three decades earlier, on the creative spirit:

To paint is to love again, and to love is to live to the fullest. But what kind of love, what sort of life can one hope to find in a vacuum cluttered with every conceivable gadget, every conceivable money maker, every last comfort, every useless luxury? To live and love, and to give expression to it in paint, one must also be a true believer. There must be something to worship. Where in this broad land is the Holy of Holies hidden? […] The practice of any art demands more than mere savoir faire . One must not only be in love with what one does, one must also know how to make love. In love self is obliterated. Only the beloved counts. Whether the beloved be a bowl of fruit, a pastoral scene, or the interior of a bawdy house makes no difference. One must be in it and of it wholly. Before a subject can be transmuted aesthetically it must be devoured and absorbed. If it is a painting it must perspire with ecstasy.

Echoing Nietzsche’s conviction that a full life requires embracing rather than running from difficulty , he adds:

The lure of the master lies in the struggle he engenders… [In America] for everything which taxes our patience, our skill, our understanding, we have short cuts… Only the art of love, it would seem, still defies the short cut.

Decades before Lewis Hyde’s now-legendary manifesto for the gift economy and half a century before its modern-day counterpart, Amanda Palmer’s manifesto for the art of asking , Miller writes:

Certainly the surest way to kill an artist is to supply him with everything he needs. Materially he needs but little. What he never gets enough of is appreciation, encouragement, understanding. I have seen painters give away their most cherished work on the impulse of the moment, sometimes in return for a good meal, sometimes for a bit of love, sometimes for no reason at all — simply because it pleased them to do so. And I have seen these same men refuse to sell a cherished painting no matter what the sum offered. I believe that a true artist always prefers to give his work away rather than sell it. A good artist must also have a streak of insanity in him, if by insanity is meant an exaggerated inability to adapt. The individual who can adapt to this mad world of to-day is either a nobody or a sage. In the one case he is immune to art and in the other he is beyond it.

Miller traces this purity of intention back to one of his first mentors and greatest influences, the painter Lilik Schatz, who never condemned Miller’s lack of technique in painting but had no tolerance for “lack of feeling, lack of daring.” Miller quotes Schatz’s memorable advice:

Do anything you like, but do it with conviction!

For their sincerity and integrity of conviction, Miller held painters in high regard his whole life. He describes them as “all lovable souls, and some … possessed of a wisdom altogether uncommon.” Even though these impressions were based on Miller’s friendships with a number of prominent artists, including Man Ray and Beauford Delaney, he remains most moved by the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz, a man of “vigorous, youthful spirit” and “unique way of looking at things”:

No one had ever talked painting to me the way Stieglitz did. It wasn’t his talk alone either, but the look in his eyes which accompanied it. That he was not a painter amazed me…. If ever the artist had a friend, a spokesman, a champion defender, it was in the person of Alfred Stieglitz… He was one of the very few Americans … whose approach to a work of art inspired reverence for the artist, for his work, for art itself. Lucky for us who come under his spell that he was not a painter, that he had created for himself the role of interpreter and defender.

Miller’s deep appreciation for such champions of the artist echoes, coincidentally, what Georgia O’Keeffe — the love of Stieglitz’s life, and a legendary artist whose own career was sparked by a friend’s unflinching faith — once wrote of the only true measure of success in art . In a sentiment that Robert Krulwich would come to echo half a century later in his magnificent commencement address on the importance of “friends in low places,” Miller extols the enormous spiritual value of such supporters:

Usually the artist has two life-long companions, neither of his own choosing… — poverty and loneliness. To have a friend who understands and appreciates your work, one who never lets you down but who becomes more devoted, more reverent, as the years go by, that is a rare experience. It takes only one friend, if he is a man of faith, to work miracles.

But Miller’s timeliest point is his word of advice and admonition to young artists, heeding which is doubly important in our networked and networking age preoccupied with how large an artist’s Twitter following is or how “successful” her Kickstarter campaign:

How distressing it is to hear young painters talking about dealers, shows, newspaper reviews, rich patrons, and so on. All that comes with time — or will never come. But first one must make friends, create them through one’s work. What sustains the artist is the look of love in the eyes of the beholder. Not money, not the right connections, not exhibitions, not flattering reviews.

Miller intuits with great poetic precision what we now know empirically about grit being more important than “genius” :

To win through by sheer force of genius is one thing; to survive and continue to create when every last door is slammed in one’s face is another. Nobody acquires genius — it is God-given. But one can acquire patience, fortitude, wisdom, understanding. Perhaps the greatest gift [is] to love what one does whether it causes a stir or not.

In yet another stroke of prescience, Miller reveals himself as an early proponent of the pay-what-you-wish model of funding creative endeavor — the model that makes Brain Pickings possible — and adds:

Who knows what is good for man in this life? Poverty is one of the misfortunes people seem to dread even more than sickness… But is it so dreadful? For me this seemingly bleak period was a most instructive one, because not being able to write for money I had to turn to something else to keep going. It could have been shining shoes; it happened to be water colors. To make water colors for money never gave me the least qualm. I set no price on my labors. Whatever the buyer chose to offer, whatever he thought he could afford, no matter how ridiculous the sum, I said yes… I earned just enough to keep my head above water. It was like writing songs and getting paid to whistle them.

Having written about the beautiful osmosis of giving and receiving nearly three decades earlier, Miller closes with a wonderfully touching personal anecdote — the kind found in Charles Bukowski’s beautiful letter of gratitude to his first patron. Illustrating the mutually ennobling effects of this kindness economy, Miller recounts one such early friendly spirit to whom he owes his creative destiny:

All this good fortune — of being able to work like a dog in happy poverty — was the result of a chance encounter with Attilio Bowinkel who ran an art shop in Westwood Village. One day I entered his shop to buy two tubes of paint. I asked for the cheapest water colors he had. When he asked me if that was all I needed I told him frankly that that was all I could afford at the moment. Whereupon the good Mr. Bowinkel put me a few discreet but pertinent queries. I answered briefly and truthfully. Then he said, and I shall never forget it: “Choose what you like … paper, paints, brushes, whatever you need. It’s a gift.” A few days later he came to the Green House to inspect my work. I blushed when I showed him what I had on hand. He didn’t say whether they were good or bad but on leaving he took a few with him, and the next day, on passing his shop, I noticed two of them in the window, beautifully framed. They were sold that very day, to Arthur Freed of M.G.M., a collector of modern European paintings… In Attilio Bowinkel I found a friend and a saviour.

To Paint Is to Love Again is hard to find but well worth the effort — it is indeed the kind of book that might one day possess you to do something as crazy as telling a stranger on the New York subway about it. Complement it with Miller on the art of living , the secret to remaining young at heart , the greatest thing about the universe , and his eleven commandments of writing .

— Published January 21, 2015 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/01/21/to-paint-is-to-love-again-henry-miller/ —

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Why I paint (aka finding my flow)

Tags Inspiration Creativity Self-care

I’ve always loved art — seeing it, learning about it, experiencing it, and creating it. My most serious art pursuit took place in Japan, where I studied during my junior year of college. I went to focus on economics and Japanese language, but took an elective Sumi-e painting class and fell in love. In retrospect, it both makes sense that this meditative, slow art form was so appealing to the type-A me that sprinted breathless through most of my life, and is equally puzzling.

I’ve dabbled with a tiny bit of abstract painting over the years, but when I say tiny I really mean it, maybe 10 paintings total. But I’ve always wanted to paint. Really paint, with oil, or watercolor, or acrylic, or anything else. It’s something that’s been calling to me for decades. Mostly, I ignored it. Last year was a truly rough one, on most counts, and my 40th birthday was looming in close proximity. So this past summer, after much encouragement from a dear friend, I decided to take a journey I’ve had on my bucket list for a long time: I went painting in Tuscany. Putting the loop of negative self talk on the back burner as much as I could – “I feel guilty going on this trip all by myself! This is too expensive! I’m being so self-indulgent! Why do I deserve to do this?” — I undertook my own micro-version of Eat, Pray, Love, The Italy Portion .   The experience that ensued was so life-changing that it deserves its own book. But while spending two weeks in Tuscany was a dream, the gift I got there was the one I didn’t quite expect: A passion for painting that burst out of me with a force I had not experienced in a long time. After my Tuscan watercolor painting adventures – which I found inspiring and extremely challenging – I joined a friend for weekly art sessions she holds in her beautiful studio. There, I tried oils for the first time. It only took a few brush strokes to realize that I’ve met my favorite medium. One of the first oil paintings I ever attempted was of a mandolin that my friend had set up as part of our composition. At first I found it less than inspiring, but as I played with color and saw it transform a blank canvas into one that spoke back to me, I got lost in trying to capture what I saw and felt. (My friend’s encouragement was a huge help, too.) That night I was reminded about this beautiful state of flow, when you find yourself so immersed in something, so focused, so completely separated from any distracting thoughts, fully present in the moment of what you are doing. It’s an incredible feeling. And did you know that it activates the same pathways in our brain as love?

I’ve been trying to find small pockets of time to paint whenever I can. When I paint, my thoughts and the chatter in my head slow down. To be honest, it feels like a vacation. A few months ago I started a regular meditation

practice. A

t one of the meditation workshops I attended, the Hindu monk leading it said something that has stayed with me: “T

he object of meditation is not to feel a certain way, but to feel how you feel.” I must admit I find it a lot easier to feel what I feel when I paint than when I sit on my meditation cushion. For most of my life I ignored this calling I felt to paint because I considered it an “extra.” A luxury. My extremely narrow perspective

went something like this: Since I am not going to make a profession out of this, I should not invest much time and energy into it. I could not feel more differently now. Doing something that I love, something that allows me to express myself, to explore my feelings, to be in the moment, to experience the

world in a fundamentally different way than I do most of my time — it’s such a precious gift. I have zero doubt that making art a more core part of my life benefits not just my own well-being, but my family, friends, colleagues, clients, yoga class friends, people I run into at the store… all of whom benefit from a more vibrant, happy, and inspired me to have around.

We can only starve our souls for so long, feeling guilty to take time for ourselves, putting all other must-dos and to-dos at the top of the list. Whatever it is that helps you feel whole, in the flow, immersed in doing something you love, my hope for writing this post is to encourage you to make time for it. You don't need to do anything to deserve it and there isn't some perfect time that will come along later. It's today, in this moment, right now.

I paint because I feel alive when I do it.

I paint because it feeds my soul., i paint because it makes my body sing., i paint because i can’t not paint..

(If you’d like to see some of my attempts at painting, I share some of my works on Instagram, where I’m natalykogan .)

Next up: What to say to yourself to silence your inner critic

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Empowering everyone to approach art with confidence.

Why I Love Art (and You Will Too)

Cover photo depicting tile decoration on the outside of a building in Pakistan, Aa Dil/Pexels .

Here are twelve reasons to give art a try.

• Art can be beautiful. But it can also be not beautiful, if you’re more into that. Either way, it elevates the ordinary and unusual alike, bringing meaning to even the most mundane of subjects.
• Art makes you think. The most powerful works of art, not to mention the stories behind them, inspire deep and meaningful thoughts. They make you consider things you wouldn’t ordinarily. And because great art generally has many layers of possible meaning, it rewards careful attention and study over time.
• Art lets you see things in a different way. Look at four paintings of a flower to discover four different ways of seeing a flower. There are so many different ways to experience the same thing, and art can give you new perspectives on things you see and encounter in everyday life.
• Art creates emotions. Joy, fear, love, nostalgia, pride, and peace are just a few of the many emotions art can make you feel.
• Art conveys other people’s experiences. Walking in someone else’s shoes has nothing on looking at an artwork they created. It literally and metaphorically lets you see the world through other people’s eyes. Enjoying a work of art can also make you feel connected to something bigger than you and introduces you to ideas and worldviews other than your own.
• Art lets you time travel. Look at an old artwork, and it’s almost like journeying back to times long gone by. Artworks are tangible links with the past, and that past can be illuminating to us today.
• Art helps you escape. Art isn’t always happy, but it’s often a good diversion from problems, stress, and daily life. Studies suggest that art viewing is good for our overall mental health .
• Art is subject to opinion. You might not agree with the textbooks, but your experience with artwork is your own and completely valid. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There are almost always multiple level of meaning and many ways to interpret them.
• Art rewards you for paying attention, and it’s really not that hard. To uncover artwork’s secrets, look at it long and hard. Background information can help, but the most important thing to do is look. It’s that simple – no translation necessary.
• Art has something for everyone. With so many different artists, styles, and subjects out there, there’s artwork to suit every person, mood, and situation.
• Art can’t judge you or get offended. You don’t have to worry about getting it wrong, looking dumb, or feeling awkward around an artwork you don’t like or understand. Art doesn’t know or care what you think of it. That makes art viewing lower stakes than other cultural experiences, where you might be afraid of offending someone, doing the wrong thing, or looking ignorant.
• Art is accessible. For most of us, it’s far easier to go to a museum and see art from another culture than it is to travel to that place in person or attend a cultural or religious event of that tradition. Art can even connect us to long-ago cultures that don’t exist at all anymore. 1

Gain fundamental skills for art lovers – no prior experience necessary.

• This point was made by Professor Grant Hardy of the University of North Carolina Asheville in the first lecture of his Great Courses series Sacred Texts of the World . Professor Hardy was talking about why studying world scriptures is a great way to understand world religions, but I felt that the point is also applicable to artworks. ↩︎

Three Reasons Why You Should Care About Architecture

Architecture just might be the most fascinating and meaningful branch of art history. In this post, you’ll find three reasons to learn about architecture.

Seven Reasons to Study Art History

I stumbled upon art history by accident and loved it, but here are some much better reasons to study this fascinating subject.

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The mission of A Scholarly Skater Art History is to make historical art and architecture accessible to everyone. I’m Alexandra, an art historian who believes that looking at art can enrich everyone’s life. Welcome to my website! Read more

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"To Paint is to Love, Again: Henry Miller and Jean-Luc Nancy." (From The First Ten Years of English Studies in Split, University of Split, 2011) - Draft available to download

Published in The First Ten Years of English Studies in Split, eds. Sanja Čurković Kalebić and Brian Willems. Split: University of Split, 2011.

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♥ Why I Love Art ♥

I woke up in a euphoric state this morning!  I’m fairly certain nothing special happened while I was sleeping…it must have been yesterday’s day of art making.

This morning started with a bowl of cereal and a positive feeling like no other.  Some Cheerios and almond milk did the trick.  Maybe the fact that spring is underway.  I could just make out birds as they begin to celebrate the decline of winter.  Perhaps the still cold, wintery air was a fraction cleaner.  I had my normal amount of sleep last night ( about 7 ½ hours) but I feel so good today!  Why?

My Day of Art

Yesterday I reserved my entire day for art making.  I created a plan, and got immersed in my artistic endeavors for an entire day with absolutely no distractions!  Even my wife had plans to be out of the house all day until bedtime.   This was to be no regular day.  It was a day in which I had drawn up plans for what needed to be done.  I had an artistic to do list that was completely achievable but would require an entire day’s work to accomplish.

I’m an oil painter so my process of creating artworks have a rather lengthy process.  The process involves conceiving paintings, setting up still lifes, working out drawings, preparing canvases, painting, varnishing paintings and framing.  Come to think of it…man I work hard at my art!

Psyching Myself Up

Yesterday was perfect.  The evening before, I cleaned up my studio space and created an outline of all the things I would try to get to.  I made the list extra long, just-in-case and made a promise to myself not to worry if I didn’t accomplish all of the artistic tasks on the list.  In fact, I purposefully made the list slightly long so I knew there was no way to accomplish it all.  I didn’t want any non-artistic idle time on my hands.

The Art Studio

I was in my creative space transferring a drawing to canvas by 8 am.  Throughout the day I ended up stretching 3 canvases, composing a new drawing and completing the under-paintings for 2 paintings!  Most of the day was spent in silence.  I don’t mind silence and have a hard time contemplating why people always need “background noise ”. 

Silence is not intimidating at all, just a simple reminder to live absolutely in the moment and give my current task perfect, unwavering attention.

I worked on my artwork all day until 10pm last night.  I took two breaks.  One was to meet a friend for lunch and  to walk Henry (our dog).  This break lasted just under 2 hours because Henry and I enjoyed a 2 mile walk.  My second break from art-making was a 15 minute dinner break.  Honestly I couldn’t wait to get back to my paintings!  It’s all I thought about during my reheated vegetarian chili my wife cooked the night before.  It was delicious by the way!

Art Is Work

Don’t get me wrong.  I was on no vacation yesterday.  I worked my tail off.  After looking at the clock I now realize I worked on artwork for 12 solid hours.  I could have gone even longer but I had to get up early the next day so I really had to make myself quit at 10 pm and force myself to go to bed.

If I was working really hard and committed to and extremely long work day, why the heck did I feel so great today?  I suspect it has a lot to do with achieving a state of flow as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes it.

Sometimes we refer to it as “being in the zone”.  Zones or Flow? Man I was there yesterday and rode that wave all day long.  Mihaly is a psychologist know for his lifelong study of creativity.   While his name is nearly impossible to spell his advice seems clear:  You can live a happy life though your daily immersion in something creative.

Creation vs. Consumption

I’m totally with you Mihaly.  I have come to find out that I am definitely happier creating things as opposed to consuming other’s creations.  I have found this to be true in all aspects of life with exception to food 😉  Although I don’t have the burning desire to get creative in the kitchen all the time it is something I’m certainly not opposed to.

My preference to create became evident as a child.  I choose playing sports over watching them and often preferred building with my Legos over watching television.  Now if I can only turn my creations into a healthy salary I think I will have found the secret door to my life’s own paradise!  Right now I do earn a fairly good chunk of change through my artistic endeavors but it’s not quite enough to quit my day job.

Would you trade in your day job for a chance to work full-time as an artist even though you may have to work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week at it?  After waking up this morning with a clean slate and a rejuvenated spirit I’m tempted to say “yes”.

What do you think?

yes! I would rather work until way past my and my kids’ bedtime ,if I could earn a fraction of what I make as a full-time elementary school teacher. Most teachers I know are not wealthy by anybody’s standards, so that is saying a lot about my love of creating. Fantastic article. Thank you.

Thank you for your kind words Jennifer! Unfortunately making money in the arts is extremely difficult, although not impossible. But one has to come to terms with which direction she wants to go. Pursue art for arts sake or pursue arts as a business. There’s no shame in either, it’s a matter of preference. (I choose the latter). The key is knowing yourself and establishing routines. Keep Producing 🙂 – John

I love how you give me a reason to loooove art! I would do it forever if I could!!!

Don’t stop… keep enjoying your creations!

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Student Essays

4 Well Written Essays on Painting & Its Importance [ 2024 ]

Painting is a constructive art. It is the human passion to draw something out of the heart. Read the following essay that sheds light upon the meaning and purpose of painting, painting as a hobby, and benefits of painting essay for children & students. This essay is quite helpful for children & students for their school exams preparation etc.

Essay on Painting | Painting as hobby | Types, Purpose & Importance of Painting Essay for Students

Painting is an art form that surfaces images to canvas or other materials by applying paints, pigments, and other mediums. There are several different media used for painting like oils, acrylics, watercolor, etc.

Painting is a beautiful art of colors . It requires creative skills to paint images on canvas or any other surface. There are various stages of painting that include preparing the surface, under-painting or blocking in colors, laying the paint, and blending colors. Additional layers of paint are applied to the surface in order to build up complex colors.

The history lies in cave paintings, which are considered as the first ever paintings. These paintings were done to depict life in those times.   It was then that people realized the power of expression in art. Following are the important types of painting:

• Minimalist paintings
• Abstract expressionism paintings
• Postmodern paintings

Some of the famous painters of the world who made their contribution to art include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Raphael, Vincent van gogh, Pablo Picasso, etc. Some of the paintings that are famous worldwide include Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the night watch by Rembrandt, the awakening conscience by Raphael, etc.

Some of the major art galleries of the world include The Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, National Gallery, Tate Modern London, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, National Galleries of Scotland, etc.

Purpose of Painting

Painting is the great colorful depiction of Art . The main functions of paintings are that they can transport you to a different time and place, evoke varied emotions from within the society, provide inspiration to people who love creative arts, etc. Following are the important functions of paintings: –

• To express an idea or a thought
• Beautiful view of nature and objects
• Memories and different emotions associated with the painting
• Helps in relaxation and meditation
• Inspiration for creative people
• Acquisition of knowledge about history, culture etc. through paintings
• Invention of new form-styles and themes
• Aesthetically pleasing paintings and pictures
• Visual learning and knowledge about things around us through photographs.

Joys of Painting

Painting is fun when you don’t give it the kind of importance that you give your studies or any other work. This way it can be enjoyed like a break from your regular stressful routine. Paint whenever you feel like, for no reason at all and see how it helps you unwind.

Painting in Modern Times: Artworks have been produced by computers for a long time now. In the beginning, it was mostly used to generate technical drawings and research papers by scientists and engineers. However, with the advent of digital photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw, artists started using computers to make their paintings look more realistic, to create various effects like colors blending in the air.

Nowadays, many artists use 3D software like Maya and Z-Brush to create their artworks. Maya is used by many 3D animators, video game developers and VFX (Visual effects) artists, etc. Z-Brush is a digital sculpting software which allows artists to create 3D models from scratch.

Benefits of Painting

Painting has been a pleasure.  It has the following benefits: –

• Visual learning and knowledge about things around us through photographs i. Provides inspiration to creative people
• Memories and different emotions

Painting for Children

Painting is a very nice hobby, so students should definitely be encouraged to follow painting. Painting develops the skills of creative thinking and expression which are necessary for everyone.

Painting has been used as a form of art since centuries. Painting has been and will continue to be used as a way to express thoughts and experiences, depict memories and different emotions associated with the painting, provide inspiration to people who love creative arts etc.

There is nothing wrong with painting, if it is done by children. Painting can help them to develop their creativity, imagination and hand-eye coordination. They can even learn to paint by numbers once they are familiar with the various painting tools. Then they can paint on their own. Children don’t waste time while painting, instead they learn to make the best use of their idle time.

Learn to Develop an Interest into Painting

Anyone can learn how to paint. Painting is a very nice hobby that everyone should try at least once in their life.  It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, you can always try your hand at painting.

It is true that some people just naturally seem to be better than others in terms of skill and creativity, but there are many artists who have not even received formal training, yet they paint very beautifully. According to me anyone can learn how to paint.

You should always begin with small canvases, until you get used to handling paints, brushes etc. You should be able-bodied enough to carry out all of your painting activities without getting tired too soon which might lead to your paintings being sloppy. Try different styles and themes. There is no end to creativity and imagination, so don’t limit yourself with a particular style or theme. You can always try your hand at something new.

Essay on Painting My Hobby:

Painting is an activity that I have loved since childhood. It is not just a hobby for me, but also a way to express my creativity and emotions. Whenever I feel stressed or overwhelmed, painting acts as a therapeutic outlet for me. In this essay, I will discuss my love for painting in 200 words.

I remember being fascinated by colors and shapes as a child. I would spend hours drawing and coloring in my sketchbook, creating my own imaginary world. As I grew older, painting became a frequent hobby that I turned to whenever I needed an escape from reality.

What I love most about painting is the freedom it gives me to express myself without any limitations. There are no rules or boundaries when it comes to art, and that is what makes it so special to me. I can use any color, any stroke, and create whatever I want on the canvas.

Apart from being a creative outlet, painting has also taught me patience and perseverance. It takes time and effort to bring an idea or concept to life through art. As I continue to paint, my skills improve, and I am able to create more complex and meaningful pieces.

I have also found solace in painting during difficult times. Whenever I am feeling down or struggling with my emotions, I turn to my paintbrushes and canvas. The process of creating something beautiful from a blank canvas is therapeutic for me.

In conclusion, painting is not just a hobby for me, but an essential part of who I am. It allows me to express myself, relax my mind, and continuously improve my skills. I am grateful for having this hobby, and I hope to continue painting for the rest of my life. So why not pick up a paintbrush and canvas yourself? You never know, you might discover a hidden talent or find peace in this beautiful form of art. Happy painting!

Short Essay on Painting:

Painting is an art form that has been around for centuries, dating back to prehistoric times. It involves using colors and various techniques to create visual representations of objects, people, or landscapes on a surface such as canvas, paper, or walls.

One of the earliest forms of painting was cave paintings, where early humans used natural pigments to depict animals and their surroundings. As time went on, painting evolved and became more refined, with the rise of different techniques such as fresco, oil painting, and watercolor.

Painting has been an integral part of human culture throughout history, with many renowned artists leaving behind a rich legacy of their work. From the iconic works of Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh to modern masters like Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock, painting has been a medium for self-expression, storytelling, and social commentary.

Apart from its artistic value, painting also holds significant cultural and historical significance. Many paintings serve as visual records of past events and societal norms, providing insights into different time periods. For example, the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is not only admired for its aesthetic beauty but also serves as a representation of Renaissance ideals and values.

In today’s world, painting continues to be a popular medium for both professional artists and hobbyists alike. With the advent of technology, new forms of painting have emerged, such as digital art and street art. However, traditional painting techniques remain highly valued and continue to inspire new generations of artists.

In conclusion, painting is a timeless art form that has stood the test of time and continues to captivate us with its beauty, complexity, and ability to convey emotions and ideas. It will undoubtedly remain an essential part of human culture for centuries to come.

Paragraph on Painting:

Painting is an art form that has existed for centuries, with evidence of its existence dating back to ancient times. It involves the use of pigments, dyes, or other coloring substances to create images on a surface. This could be on canvas, paper, wood, clay, or even walls. Paintings can range from simple illustrations to complex and detailed works of art.

Throughout history, painting has been used for various purposes. In ancient civilizations, it was primarily used for religious or ceremonial purposes. In the Renaissance period, it became a means of expressing human emotions and ideas. Today, painting is considered a form of self-expression and is widely recognized as a valuable form of art.

One of the most significant aspects of painting is its ability to capture the essence of a moment. It allows the artist to immortalize their thoughts, emotions, and ideas on a canvas or any other surface. Paintings can also serve as a representation of history, culture, and social commentary. They have the power to evoke strong emotions and convey powerful messages.

Painting is not limited to just one style or technique; it is a diverse and ever-evolving form of art. Some famous painting styles include realism, abstract, impressionism, and surrealism. Each style has its unique characteristics and techniques that give the artwork its distinct look.

In today’s digital age, painting is not limited to traditional mediums like oil or acrylic. With advancements in technology, artists are now exploring digital painting and other innovative techniques to create unique and captivating pieces of art. Painting has evolved alongside society, and it continues to be a significant form of artistic expression, reflecting the culture and values of each era. So, it is safe to say that painting will continue to captivate and inspire generations to come.

The power of painting lies in its ability to transcend time and language barriers. It speaks to our collective humanity and allows us to connect with each other through shared emotions and experiences. Whether it is a classic masterpiece or a contemporary work, painting has the power to move, challenge, and inspire us.

In conclusion, painting is not just about creating pretty pictures; it is a profound form of human expression that has stood the test of time. It has played an essential role in shaping our understanding of the world and ourselves. From ancient cave paintings to modern digital art, painting continues to captivate and inspire us, making it a timeless form of art that will continue to hold significance for generations to come.

Q: How do you write an essay about a painting?

A: To write an essay about a painting, start with an introduction, describe the painting, analyze its elements and artistic techniques, and provide your interpretation and insights.

Q: What is painting and its importance?

A: Painting is a visual art form where colors, shapes, and textures are used to create images or convey ideas. It’s important as a means of self-expression, cultural preservation, and communication.

Q: Why is painting important in our life?

A: Painting enriches our lives by offering a creative outlet, preserving history and culture, inspiring emotions, and promoting visual literacy and critical thinking.

Q: What is an introduction to painting?

A: An introduction to painting typically covers the basics, such as color theory, techniques, and materials used in creating visual artworks. It’s the initial step in learning how to paint.

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If I were a Painter

Essay 123 • mar 13th 2017.

• by Arielle Bobb-Willis

If I were a painter these are the images I would paint. The links that artists seem to find from one medium to the next are always interesting to me. Each photo acts as an extension of the visual battles I have with reality. They represent my revised and demanding need to expand my visual and mental capacity. Color is evocative. Seeing what my little brother and sisters would paint always pushed my mind to see playfully. It would always renew my sense of possibility. I want to mirror that time in ways because, as a kid, the ego isn’t there, and I just find that so invigorating.

I love to break my subjects into pieces and have them become a part of the composition rather than be the main focus. Through depression, for a long time, what I saw around me was very under-stimulating…very muddy, very dull. These images stem from the opportunities I’ve had to get to know myself more. I think my work shows how great things can happen from bad times. This is all a way to control what I see and it’s just therapeutic. My work is expressing a world that I just really wish I could live in.

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My Art Inspiration

We asked a group of artist friends “what inspires you” click on each name to visit their art website..

Verlaine Crawford

I am inspired by nature and the human form… light, color and movement. Artists guided me when I lived in Carmel, California, and during my travels to Europe, Japan and Bali.

Wouter Goedkoop

I get inspired by people’s journeys and stories. By combining them with my own experiences and cultural background, I create unique storytelling pieces that celebrate their important life events.

Gill Tomlinson

My inspiration comes from the colour, light and life of Greece and the Mediterranean which I aim to capture in my on-location sketchbooks and the layers of my mixed-media artwork.

Nicole Moss 

Magazines and books – the world of images – inspire me to make my surreal, narrative handmade collages. I have always been attracted to creating images that are dreamlike and tell a story that is interesting and challenging.

Sue Ziegler

In January, 2015 I first picked up a drawing pencil to sketch my own horses.   Immediately I felt such a strong connection that I haven’t stopped since!

Bryan Nelson

Wood is the most perfect of God’s creations. A living treasure of hidden beauty that remains hidden till it’s death. I am humbled to be able to reveal some of this hidden beauty. To help the trees live again, to be resurrected and shine again.

My paintings are an expression – a distillation – of the impressions made on my psyche by the landscapes around me, whether it be the prairies in which I grew up, the West coast of my adult years or the short time I spent in a large Eastern metropolis.

Gloria Clifford

Inspired by an intense love for our planet, my ocean and rain forest images bring public attention to threatened or endangered species. Using a brilliant color palette expresses this passion.

Jacqueline Doyle Allison

My paintings view the world through a lens of optimism and joy. Using abstracted imagery and clear, bright colors, I paint expressively with intuition and the resulting artworks are a reflection of my inner world.

Scooter Morris

Sculpted Paintings™ the three dimensional image on a two dimensional plane, are the passionate needed to reveal life’s intricate details. The painting is a story unfolding, and I am inspired by the idea and the process.

Kristen Martin

In the moment of making art, I can just focus on being creative and imagining something great forming in front of me.

Isabella Martire 

In the past, raising money for cancer centers was a major driving force. Lately, the inner and outer beauty of people I know and love has been my inspiration.

Adele French

I am a New York based artist, roaming the city looking for inspiration to create my artwork.

I’d like to give the viewer a glimpse of my world, inspired by my fears, dreams and feelings. I attempt to portray fantasy, emotion and intense feelings in my work.

The inspiration for my art comes from life – an encounter, a moment captured or a glimpse of something undefined. I love to translate these things into created works that speak to the heart of a viewer.

Fabienne Jacquet

What inspires me? Dreams, reality, memories, love, death, art, oil paint, skin and the magic of being alive.

Robert Mendoza

Nicci Sevier-Vuyk

The beauty, optimism and intrigue of the commonplace inspires me. My work connects people to everyday life in a novel and playful manner.

Sylvia Cohen

I am interested in capturing moments of expression that portray the human psyche, blurring the line between fact and fiction. My portraits are captured from a number of photographs, not posed, more as character studies.

Louise Kleinsorge Williams

For me, the urge to create comes as a vague sensation: a desire to play, to see what evolves from looking over source material. Then, as I work, magic sets in. The image unfolds.

Britta Dietsche

I see you looking at me. What do you see? Why? “Queen Katharina” and the other series guide the observers’ points of view towards releasing their desires.

Martha Brettschneider

My macro botanic photography is an integral part of my mindfulness practice. Printing on metal brings out the miraculous details of nature’s bounty and energy—treasures of present moment awareness.

Jasmine Curtis

I am inspired by nature and wildlife. Through my art I learn more about my subjects and their characteristics, and this drives me to create.

Chris White

As a visual person, I draw inspiration from a variety of sources that I encounter in my day-to-day life. From textures to negative spaces—my inspiration is my environment.

Becca Gordon

Painting as both a medium and an action has always interested me with its infinite possibilities for construction and application. I love to create bold paintings with lots of layers.

Estela Galez 

I’m always trying to capture those little moments which are constantly calling my attention, such as a look, an instant feeling, a spontaneous shadow or even the bright color of wine.

Joan Gallagher

I love everything that shows color. I take my own photos and edit them and change them to make the colors sing. Then I paint that image. I get to combine my love of photography and painting!

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Study Today

Largest Compilation of Structured Essays and Exams

My Hobby Drawing – Essay on My Hobby Drawing in English for Students

May 23, 2020 by Leya Leave a Comment

Table of Contents

My Hobby Drawing – Essay 1

When I was 5 years old, I loved to play with colors. I always used to use my elder sister’s pencil colors. Since then, my love for drawing and painting has increased. Everyone has some kind of habit and hobbies, and in my opinion, everyone should have hobbies. There are lots of benefits of hobbies. It gives freedom to express. It gives wings to the creator. It can be a stress bursting.

Essay on my Hobby : My favourite hobby drawing

As I mentioned above, my hobby of drawing started when I was 5. At first, I was just using colors to paint. I used just to draw some random pictures. I used to draw something every day. That is how I developed my drawing skills. I used to take part in various competitions. I was very interested in taking part in multiple events. I won lots of medals, trophies, and certificates by taking participate in these kinds of competitions and events. Apart from that, when I improved my skill, I started painting for others. I used to draw for my friends, cousins, and family members. I used to participate in school events. I was popular among my friends in my school days. Everyone wanted to make drawing for them. It gave me more motivation to do something new and to upgrade my skill.

Why do I love drawing?

I love drawing because it gave me respect. It made me popular among my friends. One of the major reasons why I love drawing because it gives me wings to fly. I can draw anything which is in my mind. I can express my thoughts through drawing. I draw various things. I draw for a social cause. I draw about the current situation. I love drawing because I can speak through my drawing and painting without uttering a word. I love drawing because this hobby is my favorite timepass. I draw in every mood. It helps me put my emotions on the canvas. Whenever I feel low or sad, I just put my sketchbook out from the cupboard and start drawing anything, whatever in my mind. People call it freestyle painting, it means without any purpose. After that, I feel very satisfied.

Benefits of Drawing

There is no particular benefit of drawing. But if we talk, there are many. There are several benefits of drawing, which I will be mentioning below.

It develops fine motor skills. Any specialized movement of hand, wrist, and fingers are included in fine motor skills. As an adult, you rely more on these fine motor skills whenever you type, write, drive, or even when you text on mobile. Holding and manipulating writing implements represent one of the best ways to improve fine motor skills. The drawing creates immediate visual feedback. That depends on what kind of writing instrument the child is holding.

It encourages visual analysis. Children don’t understand the concepts that you take for granted. Such as distance, size, color, or textural differences. Drawing offers the perfect opportunity for your child to learn these concepts. It helps children to get knowledge about fundamental visuals. To support this fundamental visual, give small projects to your children on an everyday basis. Which will help them get the difference between near and far, fat and thin, big and small, etc.?

It helps establish concentration. Most children enjoy drawing. this activity provides time to establish concentration. It helps children to concentrate. It helps children to practice drawing and eventually, it helps children to concentrate. It helps children observe small details.

It helps improves hand-eye concentration. In addition to improving fine motor skills, drawing enables your child to understand the connection between what they see and what they do. This hand-eye coordination is important in athletic and academic scenarios such as penmanship lessons, as well as in recreational situations. For a hand-eye coordination boost, have your child draw an object while looking at it or copy a drawing that you made.

It increases individual confidence. As a parent or guardian, you probably love to hear what your child has made new today. He or she gains confidence. When your child has an opportunity to create physical representations of his or her imagination, thoughts, and experiences. Drawing can help your child feel more intrinsic motivation and validity. This will make him or her more confident in other areas that may not come as naturally as drawing.

It teaches creative problem-solving. Drawing encourages your child to solve problems creatively, Along with visual analysis and concentration. When they draw, your child must determine the best way to connect body parts, portray emotions, and depict specific textures. Always Provide specific drawing tasks, such as creating a family portrait, and talk about your child’s color, method, or special choices that can help him or her develop stronger problem-solving skills over time.

Drawing events

As I mentioned, I loved taking part in the competition. When competing in the event, I used to meet many more talented people. It motivated me.  I have lots of painter friends now. Whenever I get stuck in the painting, they help me. When I used to participate, I won lots of medals and trophies. It motivated me a lot, too. Several drawing and painting events are happening every day across the world. I used to take part in most of the interschool and state-level competition. I used to take part in online events, too. It helped me know what kind of talents are there in the world.

My future in drawing

I will try to continue my drawing skills in the future also. I am learning more skills related to painting. I am currently focusing on graphic designing and doodling. The world is moving towards digitalization. That is the reason I am trying my hands there too. There is many things to learn from now. I am looking forward to doing that. Moreover, I am very excited.

In the end, I want to add that everyone should have one hobby. It helps a lot in daily life. It helps to build your social image.

My Hobby Drawing – Essay 2

Drawing is something I enjoy doing in my free time and it is my favourite hobby. Although I love to dance and sing, drawing has a special place in my heart.

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher drew a rose on the blackboard using a few simple shapes. I was surprised that it is so easy to create a rose on paper. I tried drawing it in my book and was really very happy when the little triangles I drew started resembling the flower. That was when I started enjoying drawing.

I understood that all complex images can be drawn by breaking them down into simple shapes. I used to follow instructions from children’s magazines on how you can improve your drawing. Recently, my sister has introduced me to YouTube drawing tutorials. Through these videos, I have learnt to draw beautiful Disney princesses and different types of fruits.

Colour Pencils, Crayons, and Oil Pastels

I was taught to use crayons and pencil colours during art classes in school. Later, I started using oil pastels, as these colours are much brighter than the others. Oil pastels add a special colour pop to the painting and these are easy to use, like crayons. There are several artists in the world who specialise in painting with oil pastels. These works of art also look like oil paintings.

The Motivation to Draw

I feel very happy when I complete a painting and my friends admire my work. My teacher has told me that I am very good at colouring. She has also encouraged me to participate in several drawing competitions as a representative of the school. So I take great pleasure in saying that my hobby is drawing.

One of my biggest sources of inspiration is my mother, who draws like a professional artist! She uses watercolours in most of her paintings. I have recently started using watercolours and I feel it is a lot of fun working with this medium.

The beauty of the colours blending into each other cannot be easily expressed in words. I have used watercolours to paint sunsets and to make abstract paintings. I prefer to use the colours in the tube, rather than the watercolour cakes.

Drawing Events

There are several drawing events that people follow these days. Inktober is an annual event where an artist creates one ink drawing each day for the whole month of October. The drawings will be based on prompts that are decided before the event. Artists display their work on social media and other forums for comments and criticisms.

I am looking forward to participating in Inktober this year. It will be fun to see the different drawings that people come up with for the same prompt.

My Future in Drawing

I intend to continue learning new drawing techniques like mandala art, doodling, and oil painting. There is so much to learn out there, and I am excited to try them all! My mother has promised me that she would enrol me into some painting classes where I can improve my skills in my hobby, drawing. I understand that practise is crucial here, and I should try to draw at least one illustration per day to improve my work.

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Impressionism: art and modernity.

Garden at Sainte-Adresse

Claude Monet

Porte de la Reine at Aigues-Mortes

Jean-Frédéric Bazille

La Grenouillère

The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne

Alfred Sisley

Edouard Manet

Madame Georges Charpentier (Marguerite-Louise Lemonnier, 1848–1904) and Her Children, Georgette-Berthe (1872–1945) and Paul-Emile-Charles (1875–1895)

Auguste Renoir

The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil

The Dance Class

Edgar Degas

Mademoiselle Bécat at the Café des Ambassadeurs, Paris

Côte des Grouettes, near Pontoise

Camille Pissarro

Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

Allée of Chestnut Trees

Young Woman Seated on a Sofa

Berthe Morisot

Two Young Girls at the Piano

Dancers in the Rehearsal Room with a Double Bass

Young Girl Bathing

Young Woman Knitting

The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning

Margaret Samu Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

October 2004

In 1874, a group of artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. organized an exhibition in Paris that launched the movement called Impressionism. Its founding members included Claude Monet , Edgar Degas , and Camille Pissarro, among others. The group was unified only by its independence from the official annual Salon , for which a jury of artists from the Académie des Beaux-Arts selected artworks and awarded medals. The independent artists, despite their diverse approaches to painting, appeared to contemporaries as a group. While conservative critics panned their work for its unfinished, sketchlike appearance, more progressive writers praised it for its depiction of modern life. Edmond Duranty, for example, in his 1876 essay La Nouvelle Peinture (The New Painting), wrote of their depiction of contemporary subject matter in a suitably innovative style as a revolution in painting. The exhibiting collective avoided choosing a title that would imply a unified movement or school, although some of them subsequently adopted the name by which they would eventually be known, the Impressionists. Their work is recognized today for its modernity, embodied in its rejection of established styles, its incorporation of new technology and ideas, and its depiction of modern life.

Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris) exhibited in 1874, gave the Impressionist movement its name when the critic Louis Leroy accused it of being a sketch or “impression,” not a finished painting. It demonstrates the techniques many of the independent artists adopted: short, broken brushstrokes that barely convey forms, pure unblended colors, and an emphasis on the effects of light. Rather than neutral white, grays, and blacks, Impressionists often rendered shadows and highlights in color. The artists’ loose brushwork gives an effect of spontaneity and effortlessness that masks their often carefully constructed compositions, such as in Alfred Sisley’s 1878 Allée of Chestnut Trees ( 1975.1.211 ). This seemingly casual style became widely accepted, even in the official Salon, as the new language with which to depict modern life.

In addition to their radical technique, the bright colors of Impressionist canvases were shocking for eyes accustomed to the more sober colors of academic painting. Many of the independent artists chose not to apply the thick golden varnish that painters customarily used to tone down their works. The paints themselves were more vivid as well. The nineteenth century saw the development of synthetic pigments for artists’ paints, providing vibrant shades of blue, green, and yellow that painters had never used before. Édouard Manet’s 1874 Boating ( 29.100.115 ), for example, features an expanse of the new cerulean blue and synthetic ultramarine. Depicted in a radically cropped, Japanese-inspired composition , the fashionable boater and his companion embody modernity in their form, their subject matter, and the very materials used to paint them.

Such images of suburban and rural leisure outside of Paris were a popular subject for the Impressionists, notably Monet and Auguste Renoir . Several of them lived in the country for part or all of the year. New railway lines radiating out from the city made travel so convenient that Parisians virtually flooded into the countryside every weekend. While some of the Impressionists, such as Pissarro, focused on the daily life of local villagers in Pontoise, most preferred to depict the vacationers’ rural pastimes. The boating and bathing establishments that flourished in these regions became favorite motifs. In his 1869 La Grenouillère ( 29.100.112 ), for example, Monet’s characteristically loose painting style complements the leisure activities he portrays. Landscapes , which figure prominently in Impressionist art, were also brought up to date with innovative compositions, light effects, and use of color. Monet in particular emphasized the modernization of the landscape by including railways and factories, signs of encroaching industrialization that would have seemed inappropriate to the Barbizon artists of the previous generation.

Perhaps the prime site of modernity in the late nineteenth century was the city of Paris itself, renovated between 1853 and 1870 under Emperor Napoleon III. His prefect, Baron Haussmann, laid the plans, tearing down old buildings to create more open space for a cleaner, safer city. Also contributing to its new look was the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), which required reconstructing the parts of the city that had been destroyed. Impressionists such as Pissarro and Gustave Caillebotte enthusiastically painted the renovated city, employing their new style to depict its wide boulevards, public gardens, and grand buildings. While some focused on the cityscapes, others turned their sights to the city’s inhabitants. The Paris population explosion after the Franco-Prussian War gave them a tremendous amount of material for their scenes of urban life. Characteristic of these scenes was the mixing of social classes that took place in public settings. Degas and Caillebotte focused on working people, including singers and dancers , as well as workmen. Others, including Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt , depicted the privileged classes. The Impressionists also painted new forms of leisure, including theatrical entertainment (such as Cassatt’s 1878 In the Loge [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]), cafés, popular concerts, and dances. Taking an approach similar to Naturalist writers such as Émile Zola, the painters of urban scenes depicted fleeting yet typical moments in the lives of characters they observed. Caillebotte’s 1877 Paris Street, Rainy Day (Art Institute, Chicago) exemplifies how these artists abandoned sentimental depictions and explicit narratives, adopting instead a detached, objective view that merely suggests what is going on.

The independent collective had a fluid membership over the course of the eight exhibitions it organized between 1874 and 1886, with the number of participating artists ranging from nine to thirty. Pissarro, the eldest, was the only artist who exhibited in all eight shows, while Morisot participated in seven. Ideas for an independent exhibition had been discussed as early as 1867, but the Franco-Prussian War intervened. The painter Frédéric Bazille, who had been leading the efforts, was killed in the war. Subsequent exhibitions were headed by different artists. Philosophical and political differences among the artists led to heated disputes and fractures, causing fluctuations in the contributors. The exhibitions even included the works of more conservative artists who simply refused to submit their work to the Salon jury. Also participating in the independent exhibitions were Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin , whose later styles grew out of their early work with the Impressionists.

The last of the independent exhibitions in 1886 also saw the beginning of a new phase in avant-garde painting. By this time, few of the participants were working in a recognizably Impressionist manner. Most of the core members were developing new, individual styles that caused ruptures in the group’s tenuous unity. Pissarro promoted the participation of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, in addition to adopting their new technique based on points of pure color, known as Neo-Impressionism . The young Gauguin was making forays into Primitivism. The nascent Symbolist Odilon Redon also contributed, though his style was unlike that of any other participant. Because of the group’s stylistic and philosophical fragmentation, and because of the need for assured income, some of the core members such as Monet and Renoir exhibited in venues where their works were more likely to sell.

Its many facets and varied participants make the Impressionist movement difficult to define. Indeed, its life seems as fleeting as the light effects it sought to capture. Even so, Impressionism was a movement of enduring consequence, as its embrace of modernity made it the springboard for later avant-garde art in Europe.

Samu, Margaret. “Impressionism: Art and Modernity.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Bomford, David, et al. Art in the Making: Impressionism . Exhibition catalogue.. New Haven and London: National Gallery, 1990.

Herbert, Robert L. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

House, John. Monet: Nature into Art . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

Moffett, Charles S., et al. The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886 . San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986.

Nochlin, Linda, ed. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, 1874–1904: Sources and Documents . Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1966.

Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism . Rev. and enl. ed. . New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1961.

Tinterow, Gary, and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism . Exhibition catalogue.. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. See on MetPublications

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Artist or Maker

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Why I love to draw

Artwork by Gianna Cabral

GIANNA CABRAL , Staff Writer February 17, 2017

Whether you like cooking or simply playing sports, everyone has a hobby they enjoy doing in their free time. We all need an outlet to let us forget about the world for a while and for me that escape is drawing.

Typically there’s a misconception that you have to be good at drawing in order to enjoy it, but all you really need is a creative mind to be an artist. People can be very judgemental towards one another, but the best part about being an artist is that there is no right or wrong in a piece of art that you have created.

One thing I love about drawing is that you can tell any story you want through your artwork. I find it so fascinating that everyone’s perspective is completely different from one another, and that shows in their artwork. I love to draw pictures that people can interpret in whatever way they choose.

I also love to draw because it gives me a sense of freedom. When I pick up a pencil and draw, I have the ability right at the tip of my fingers to create and destroy anything my heart desires, and that feeling makes me feel so powerful.

Also, as someone who’s not entirely good at putting my feelings into words, drawing enables me to express my emotions without having to speak. Drawing something that represents how I feel allows me to show how I’m feeling when I can’t seem to get the words to come out of my mouth.

Drawing helps me drown out all of the negativity in life when it gets too much. When I have a bad day and don’t want to get out of bed, I like to create art. When I feel sad or angry and don’t totally understand why, putting my thoughts onto a piece of paper through a drawing helps me understand my emotions a little bit better. Even though we all go through sadness and pain, for me creating art allows me to take all of those awful emotions and create something beautiful out of it.

Not only does drawing make me feel better temporarily, but it gives me so much strength, optimism, and confidence that I can do anything. I feel like drawing gives me a purpose in this world. When I create art, it gives me hope that someone might see my artwork and make a connection to it. I could make someone feel empowered simply because they can relate to my artwork. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll see one of my pieces of art and feel inspired, too.

Gianna Cabral is a senior at Gloucester High School and third year Gillnetter staff writer. She can be found creating art or attending concerts. During...

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John Landry • Sep 19, 2022 at 3:59 am

My art is essentially a mini-vacation. Whatever I put down, I visit it every day. It’s some place where I can escape for a couple of minutes. But, like I said, it’s a mini-vacation for me.

Essay on Being An Artist

Students are often asked to write an essay on Being An Artist in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

100 Words Essay on Being An Artist

Understanding artists.

Artists are people who create art. Art can be paintings, music, dance, or any other form of creative expression. Artists use their skills and imagination to create something beautiful or meaningful.

The Creative Process

Being an artist is not just about creating art. It’s about the process of coming up with new ideas and turning them into reality. Artists often spend a lot of time thinking and experimenting before they create their final piece of art.

The Artist’s Journey

Being an artist can be challenging. Artists often face criticism and rejection. But they keep creating because they love what they do. They are driven by their passion for art and their desire to express themselves.

The Joy of Art

Despite the challenges, being an artist can be very rewarding. There’s joy in creating something from nothing. And there’s even greater joy when others appreciate your work. Being an artist is about sharing your vision and touching people’s hearts.

250 Words Essay on Being An Artist

What is an artist, the life of an artist.

Being an artist is not just a job, it’s a way of life. Artists put their heart and soul into their work. They spend a lot of time thinking about new ideas. They also practice a lot to improve their skills. Artists often work alone, but they also share their work with others. They want to make people feel something when they see or hear their art.

Challenges Faced by Artists

Being an artist can be hard. Artists can face many challenges. Sometimes, they may not have enough money to buy supplies. Other times, people might not like their work. But artists keep going because they love what they do. They know that it takes time and effort to create great art.

Why Being an Artist is Rewarding

Despite the challenges, being an artist is very rewarding. Artists get to express their feelings and ideas in a unique way. They can inspire others with their work. When people appreciate an artist’s work, it brings them a lot of joy. Artists also feel proud when they see their skills improve over time.

In conclusion, being an artist is a special kind of life. It can be hard, but it is also very rewarding. Artists use their creativity to make the world a more beautiful place.

500 Words Essay on Being An Artist

An artist is a person who uses their imagination and skill to create something beautiful or meaningful. They may use different materials, like paint, clay, or even digital tools. Some artists make paintings or sculptures, while others write music, dance, or act in plays. Every artist is unique and has their own way of expressing ideas and emotions.

The Journey of Becoming an Artist

Becoming an artist is not just about learning how to draw or paint. It’s about exploring your own thoughts and feelings, and finding new ways to share them with the world. This journey often starts at a young age. Many artists begin creating art as children, using their natural curiosity and creativity. As they grow older, they might take art classes to learn new techniques and improve their skills.

Being an artist can be challenging. Sometimes, it’s hard to come up with new ideas or to make your art look exactly the way you want it to. Artists often face criticism, which can be tough to handle. They also need to find ways to support themselves financially, which can be difficult if they are just starting out or if their art is not widely known.

The Rewards of Being an Artist

Despite these challenges, being an artist can also be very rewarding. There is a great joy in creating something that is truly your own. Artists often say that they feel most alive when they are making art. They also get to connect with other people in a deep and meaningful way, by sharing their art and the ideas and emotions it represents.

Artists and Society

Artists play an important role in society. They help us to see the world in new and different ways. Through their art, they can challenge our beliefs, make us think, and inspire us to feel deeply. Artists can also bring beauty into our lives, and help us to appreciate the world around us.

In conclusion, being an artist is about much more than just making art. It’s about expressing oneself, facing challenges, and connecting with others. It’s a journey of self-discovery, creativity, and passion. And while it can be hard at times, it can also be a deeply fulfilling way to live one’s life.

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Essay on Drawing

500 words essay on drawing.

Drawing is a simplistic art whose concern is with making marks. Furthermore, drawing is a way of communicating or expressing a particular feeling of an artist. Let us focus on this unique form of art with this essay on drawing.

                                                                                                              Essay On Drawing

Significance of Drawing                                    

Drawing by itself is an art that gives peace and pleasure. Furthermore, learning the art of drawing can lead to efficiency in other mediums.  Also, having an accurate drawing is the basis of a realistic painting.

Drawing has the power to make people more expressive. It is well known that the expression of some people can’t always take place by the use of words and actions only. Therefore, drawing can serve as an important form of communication for people.

It is possible to gain insight into the thoughts and feelings of people through their drawings. Moreover, this can happen by examining the colour pattern, design, style, and theme of the drawing. One good advantage of being able to express through drawing is the boosting of one’s emotional intelligence .

Drawing enhances the motor skills of people. In fact, when children get used to drawing, their motor skills can improve from a young age. Moreover, drawing improves the hand and eye coordination of people along with fine-tuning of the finger muscles.

Drawing is a great way for people to let their imaginations run wild. This is because when people draw, they tend to access their imagination from the depths of their mind and put it on paper. With continuous drawing, people’s imagination would become more active as they create things on paper that they find in their surroundings.

How to Improve Drawing Skills

One of the best ways to improve drawing skills is to draw something every day. Furthermore, one must not feel pressure to make this drawing a masterpiece. The main idea here is to draw whatever comes to mind.

For drawing on a regular basis, one can make use of repetitive patterns, interlocking circles , doodles or anything that keeps the pencil moving. Therefore, it is important that one must avoid something complex or challenging to start.

Printing of a picture one desires to draw, along with its tracing numerous times, is another good way of improving drawing skills. Moreover, this helps in the building of muscle memory for curves and angles on the subject one would like to draw. In this way, one would be able to quickly improve drawing skills.

One must focus on drawing shapes, instead of outlines, at the beginning of a drawing. For example, in the case of drawing a dog, one must first focus on the head by creating an oval. Afterwards, one can go on adding details and connecting shapes.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Drawing

Drawing is an art that has the power of bringing joy to the soul. Furthermore, drawing is a way of representing one’s imagination on a piece of paper. Also, it is a way of manipulating lines and colours to express one’s thoughts.

FAQs For Essay on Drawing

Question 1: Explain the importance of drawing?

Answer 1: Drawing plays a big role in our cognitive development. Furthermore, it facilitates people in improving hand-eye coordination, analytic skills, creative thinking, and conceptualising ideas. As such, drawing must be used as a tool for learning in schools.

Question 2: What are the attributes that drawing can develop in a person?

Answer 2: The attributes that drawing can develop in a person are collaboration, non-verbal communication, creativity, focus-orientation, perseverance, and confidence.

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