After thinking and thinking, which is not easy for me, BTW…lol I finally decided to give myself the freedom of painting what I’m feeling from day to day. NOT to paint what people may want to buy, but to just paint what I want to paint. I love the benefits of art therapy and the freedom!
I’m finding that I’m liking abstract quite a bit. I know I spoke about this in my last post, but I wanted to show you a couple of examples of what my idea of abstract is.
I’m not sure why, but I love this and it was so much fun to paint. It is abstract, but, you do know what your looking at. Its roses.
I also absolutely LOVE to paint flowers of all kinds and butterflies are kind of my signature. Not all my paintings have them, but a lot of them do. Lol
When I start to paint, say I start around 9:00 or 10:00, I get immersed in what I’m doing, the next thing I know the hubby is home from work!!! Where did all the time go??? But mostly….why wasn’t I worried about it or much of anything else during all that time??! Because I was so relaxed while creating something that I loved. I don’t even notice when the TV shuts off because I’m not paying attention to it. I’m totally immersed! Art is therapy!! I’ll say it over and over. No matter what type of art you’d like to do…it is therapy. It takes your mind off of whatever is bothering you or has you depressed, anxious or just bothered! Lol
I can remember laying in bed for a long time BTW, and having nothing to do or look forward to. I had NO goals, no ambition, no nothing. It had been stripped away after the diagnosis of MS. Even though I was not totally physically impared by MS, it played HARD on my psyche! I did have problems walking and my energy level was nil, but I still believe that it was that MS medicine that started the down fall for me. Regardless, I was depressed and if I did go out shopping, like WalMart, I would go into a terror panic from sensory overload. Not so much crowds, but, having so much to look at! It overloaded my brain and I went into a panic and would sometimes literally run out of the store! Poor hubby would be stuck to do the rest of the shopping! I have such a good husband!!! I still, to a certain extent, have this problem, but of course I fight it as hard as I can and most of the time I can make it all the way through checkout. Lol
I just finished a five (5) canvas painting and I’m loving it. It took a while, but to me, it turned out beautiful. And I’ve figured out that I’m the one that has to love the painting, even if others don’t. I paint for therapy, and because I absolutely love to paint…period!! Lol I’m looking forward to spring and the festivals to start back up. I love meeting people that walk into my little tent and ooh and awe at my paintings. Most say they love them, but only a few will buy. I never get upset with it because I know that some people don’t have the money to spend on a painting, or they just don’t have room for one. But when I do sell one and I know the person who bought it actually loved my work, my head swells to almost bursting. Lol
Doing abstract art is just an example of some art therapy. You can choose what it is that speaks to you!! Paint what you feel when your feeling it. Angry …paint angry and let it show. Happy, do the same! If I’m sad about something, then I guarantee you, it will show in what I’m painting.
Art therapy is what you make it. It can be doodling, sketching something, trying to work with different mediums, like paint, charcoal or inks. It really doesn’t matter what you choose to do…..just do it! For some reason, it just makes things look and feel better when you put your mind to canvas or paper. It just seems to all come out. Or at least I know it does for me.
The reason I started this blog was to try to explain how much painting has done for me. I swear if I have a day that I don’t paint…it’s like I didn’t accomplish anything. Lol Or like I missed a day of work. Go figure. I guess it’s that right brain way of thinking. Lol
If anyone that reads my blog (like there are thousands LMBO) and would like to talk about this subject, please leave me your email address on my contact page. Maybe I can lead you to the right person in your area that can get you started in art. Or if you live within driving distance to me, I’ll be more than happy to get you on the right path!! Just get in touch!!
And to end almost all of my blogs, go visit my My Paintings where you’ll find almost all of the paintings I have done for the past couple of years. They, of course, are all for sale!