Dabbler’s Day Out!

One of these weekends, we visited a neighbor and were impressed with the paintings at their place. The lady seems to keep good interest in art and has adorned walls of her house with her own work. It looked great!

Now, some of these social visits come with certain side effects! And we are no exceptions ;) The following day saw us pull out our stationary and dabble at art.

I set myself up to do modern art. Excuse me for my ignorance, but to me modern art is some random but flowing strokes of the brush soiled with random mix of colors. With that “simple” outlook towards modern art, I pulled out a canvas and a coloring tray. But I found myself faced with a predicament. What color mix will look good? Should I really try random strokes? Or, should I try some pattern? Well, finally I have to do something that goes well with my walls. Right, eh? After considerable time spent figuring out which way, I remembered reading some where that a real artist just lets himself go; lets the heart take over. Great, I can try that! I close my eyes, relax for a couple of moments and without opening my eyes, start swaying the brush as if trying to capture the random thoughts buzzing in my head. (Well, I thought closing my eyes will bring my heart out). After a few minutes of “bringing-my-heart-out”, I was curious to see how it turned out. No marks for guessing. It surely was random strokes but suitable only to adorn my waste basket!

Meanwhile, my kid and wife were having a stifled laugh at my great display of art-passion. They were silently capturing me on the film, too.

Next, I turned to sketches. Having failed miserably at painting, I reassured myself aloud that I can do better with a pencil. This time I wised up. I decided to reproduce an image from a sketch book. After an hour of strenuous work, I could do passport photograph size portion of the image and looked around for appreciation. My folks scrutinized the work and “encouraged” that I am on track but should try doing it one more time from scratch. After all, practice makes a man perfect. This frank feedback brought me down and I gave up for the day.

I took solace in the thought that neither my kid nor my wife could come up with something that can be displayed around the house.

Hmm! I may not have succeeded in bringing out the “master-piece”, but it sure was a fun family moment – each one trying to do their best, laughing at each others’ failed attempt, and renewed interest in learning something new. Oh, did I say, I now appreciate art as a rare skill.