JULI SEXTONI have come to watercolor painting late in my life and it has been an interesting journey. I believe that part of the "essence of being human is to create". We all have that urge and each of us express the desire "to make" in our own unique way, whether one is an engineer or a politician or a writer or a visual artist.
I think all of us explore this idea of making things in early childhood, but many of us become discouraged by negative experiences or comments or lack of encouragement. For myself, by sixth grade I felt I could neither draw or paint or do well in any form of visual arts and avoided art classes in school as a result. In my 20's the desire to make something came back to the surface and so I started my journey. My mother-in-law taught me how to knit and I felt secure following the patterns knowing I couldn't do too much wrong. Then I went to counted cross stitch. Follow the pattern and get a beautiful end product. Next came quilting. Follow the pattern, get a nice result. But by now I was gaining confidence and enjoying putting together my own ideas of colors within the patterns. Then one day a lady came into our place of business and mentioned she gave watercolor classes. I talked two of my coworkers into taking the class with me (less intimidating if you take a friend). She proved to be a fabulous instructor and my adventure with watercolor began. And after all, my favorite part of art class in junior high was at the end of the period when we all dumped our paints in the sink and got to watch all those colors mixing together before they went down the drain! I will have to say the best part of all for me has been the friends I've made along the way. I have been incredibly blessed to have the amazingly talented ladies of Aqua 4 (now Alaska Friends) to encourage me, give me hints and instructions and critique my paintings. I would not be painting, or getting the joy from it, if it weren't for them. Plus, they have been there for all the other ups and downs of my life. My wish for everyone is to find their area of creativity and their own set of encouragers. |
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