Men Don't Listen and Wayne L. Misner 2023©    

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Acrylic Painting

(By Wayne L. Misner www.MenDontListen.com, MenDontListen@aol.com)




   Quite literally, painting will change your life. You will gain self-esteem and a confidence you never knew you possessed. Painting provides an excellent source of personal relaxation, physical therapy, and maybe emotional therapy as well. . It allows you to associate creativity with every aspect of your life, not just on the canvas. Many have been led to find pleasure in music, reading, writing, sewing, gardening and more, as a result of painting. Many who have started with a hobby of painting actually expanded their hobbies over time to many other areas too. Through painting, you will discover in yourself a greater awareness of the beauty of nature. With today's stressful lifestyles, it's important to have time that you take to do something just for the fun of it.


  Fun could be in the mind of the beholder. Sometimes fun can be frustration.

I’ll use as my example, the effort (frustration) I have had learning the art of painting a water drop on a lily pad. I must have painted thousands of water drops so far. Not one (ok maybe one) has ever looked like a water drop. I’ve gone out on the Internet and found free videos teaching the methods used to paint a water drop. I’ve used all kinds of colors as well as shades of paint. I’ve purchased the correct type of brushes, paint colors, and practiced on paper, canvas and the top of my desk by mistake. Still no luck painting water drops. I guess painting, like all other things in life, requires patience, discipline and much, much practice. Remember the old saying, “The more I practice the luckier I get”.


 



   Actually, I get so engrossed in it - you lose all track of time. Generally you can appreciate the tranquility that surrounds you. Any hobby requires (and sometimes it is hard to set aside) the time to set up paint and clean up. However, there are benefits as you come to the conclusion that painting can be your peace time.


  We all need time to ourselves at some point. Personally, I like to go from one thing to another. You learn as you go along. Painting is something you need to be in the mood for, although if you are stressed it can be soothing. It is gratifying when you paint from your imagination and see what transpires.


 Of cause, when you share with others that you paint for fun they ask to see your paintings. This does course some problems for some (maybe me too), for I paint for me and when others view what I have done, they judge the quality of the painting. They can’t see that sometimes the amateur artist is not painting for quality but for pleasure. When I worked all week behind a desk and the weekend arrived I would go outside with my sons and play ball. I would not want to be judged how well I played ball with my kids on a weekend, any more then being judged how I paint for myself as a hobby.