How to Start Painting at Any Age
Try a Paint and Sip Wine and Art Event!
Megan Jackson wasn’t always a painter. Her mom was an art teacher, so she understood art techniques, but the pressure to be technically good was a deterrent.
“When I was little, I always felt like I had to do it right, and then I couldn’t. Then I didn’t do it,” Jackson says.
“It was fourth grade. We had the art specialist come around and it wasn’t my mom at this point. It was her boss who was a really great artist and I thought she was awesome. One lesson I just remember I froze the entire class time, hid my paper, didn’t do anything, because I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s got to be perfect. It’s got to be perfect and it’s got to be different.’ It was the worst hour and a half of my fourth grade life.”
After her first child was born, Jackson returned to art as a stress reliever — a way to get out of her body. But first, she had to let go of perfectionism. “I needed to get messy and literally scribble,” she says.
She encourages others to do the same.
“Anyone — anyone — can be an artist. You hear people all the time say, ‘Oh, I don’t have any artistic talent,’ which is not true,” Jackson says. “You just have to do it whether you think you have talent or not, you have to get out there and try it.”
Jackson offers…how you, too, can let go of the pressure and get started doing art:
TRY A WINE AND ART EVENT
“Staring at a blank canvas can be very intimidating and you don’t know where to start,” Jackson says. Paint-and-sip events popping up around the country let you ease into it.
“It’s a relaxed environment. You’re with your friends. You’re having wine. And someone is telling you exactly what to do. It’s a good way to just put paint to canvas and experience what that feels like,” Jackson says. “It’s fun to see people post on Facebook after they’ve done this. The difference in technique varies from individual to individual and how they see things when it’s the exact same painting and the same teacher telling you what to do. Everyone has their own style and technique right off the bat. It’s really fascinating to me.”
Adapted from Heidi Raschke, April 29, 2016, on Nextavenue.com