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| "North Yorkshire Moors at Twilight" |
This is the introduction for my six week watercolour course for beginners called 'The Magic of Watercolour':
Why Paint?
"It
seems to me that making marks or painting has been a fundamental part of the
human experience since the dawn of time. Even the old caveman took time off from making
grunting noises and dragging his wife round by her hair (do NOT try this at
home!!!) to make exquisite paintings on cave walls that have survived to this
day. Using basic materials and simple colours they recorded what was going on
around them and the animals they depended on for survival. So people have
always painted and always will I hope. In pre-camera times painters used to
record events and places in paint but even back then the vast majority of
people painted not for posterity but for enjoyment. Today more people than ever
before paint for pleasure and you are now one of them. Obviously there are many
factors but one of the main reasons for painting has to be that its fun. We are
here to enjoy ourselves. Please, please promise me that you will never forget
that. When all is said and done it is only a piece of paper. Winston Churchill
painted for fun as a pleasant antidote to the weighty responsibilities he
carried on his shoulders and he famously remarked – “I could shout at it, curse
it, screw it into a ball, throw it in a bin and it never once did anything back
to me…it is just a piece of paper!”. This is a very good lesson to remember
unless of course you really want to live and paint in a cold attic, drink
absinthe and maybe even cut your ear off to be a ‘proper’ artist."
I have reproduced it because I think it is so important to establish the 'fun' principle right from the start. If we enjoy doing the painting then people will enjoy looking at it. It is important to remember the principle when things don't turn out as we would like them to. It is all part and parcel of the process and providing we learn from our mistakes then we can still enjoy the experience. So whatever stage you are in your painting journey...relax and have fun!
