Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[Faith-and-Hope]

Thanks @Janiee .  Going to art school here is something I never expected to do.  It’s bittersweet in the wake of the life changes our mi challenges have wraught on us, and it’s helping me to survive them.

[Janiee]

Wow!! Art school would be an amazing opportunity!! My stick figures even look rubbish lol. What's your medium? I keep saying I'm going to do a pottery class so I can attempt to make the saddest looking ashtray 😜. My Dad and brother were great at drawing, but it skipped me altogether @Faith-and-Hope 

[Smc]

@Janiee, I've done a pottery (ceramics) course, and for a while did it as a home small business. While an artistic eye does help, because it's very tactile and form based, there's some real diferences from 2D art. You're making by the feel of the form as well as how it looks. Also, clay is infinitely re-useable, so if you wanted you could make 20 ashtrays, pick out one that you actually love to fire, and toss the remaining 19 into the clay recycling bucket to be remade into something else. Even professional potters do that. One very excellent potter I've met sometimes discards up to half of what comes out of his kiln because it doesn't meet his standards, but the remaining pieces that do have a collectors level price tag on them. 🙂 So they should to- they're beautiful. (Of course, once fired he can't re-use the clay, although he's commented about the failures joining the aggregate on his driveway.)

[Faith-and-Hope]

A few hours later .....

I fell asleep looking for an image to post for you @Janiee .... was more tired than I realised and went out like a light ......

My medium, if I were to choose one, is painting in oils, but I have interests and skills across a few areas, and this is a general art course 🎉 so I am being fed in all directions 😁

[Janiee]

Well, that is good to know @Smc . My sister in law and some friends are right into it. There is a pottery class up here, but its on a friday and I'm usually at work most fridays. One day....when I win lotto....haha. 

All good @Faith-and-Hope , i think i fell asleep about half an hour after that. Are oils more difficult than water colour? They always look more technical to me. There was a great local artist from my home town who does water colours, I bought one 25ish years ago, as it was of where we used to go fishing and camping, I saw some more of his work recently and I'm going to have wait for that lotto win to buy more now lol. 

[Faith-and-Hope]

Morning @Janiee .....

some peiple come inti oaintibg classes with inky drawing experuence behind them, but if they have painted at all, they tend to have fallen into a particular area, such as working with watercolour, oils, acrylic or gauche.  Most of us have worked with some watercolour at school, and school craft paint is usually low-quality acrylic, and that was the path Intook through junior school grades.  In Hugh Schh I was introduced tonoiks and absolutely loved them, but they are expensive, require ventilation and a lot of clean-up, traditionally with turps (which in art school

Inhave learned is a toxic substance .... eek !). Somewhere in there I also tried guache and loved them too, and owing to the issues with oil, I have worked with good quality acrylics in the last few years.

Tgat is probably all as clear as mud in response to your question .... lol ..... and all centred around me and what I have experienced, but that’s actually the crux of it ..... it really comes down to giving things a go, and one medium or another stands out with different people.

[Sophie1]

@Faith-and-Hope @Janiee @Smc   Wow what an inspiring few posts - wonderful to read about passions and art and having a go - I esp love the idea of having ‘failures’ and that’s ok and part of the process 😉 

thankyou for sharing - I too am going through a stage of pursuing a passion - mine is music - I learned piano as a child to only fourth grade AMEB and was never really good at it ... played in a church band for a bit and loved that ... played hymns for church which I found relaxing altho stressful as I wasn’t really skilled enough in timing to play quite well enough - but the congregation got the general idea and they were desperate at the time lol so there you go 

so now 20 years  later in my mid forties I want to actually learn properly and take my skills to another level where I can really enjoy it and play in time ha ha .. does sound better and feel better ...   as I don’t go to church anymore (very long story - no hard feelings just not for me anymore) the music will not be in a church context ... initially I will learn the skills then think about what context I can use them in 

soooo ... instead of piano I decided to learn a new instrument - Cello ! I started last May and now I can play twinkle twinkle little star lol ... cello is so different and it stirs my soul - I love the bass sound and the ringing of the strings 

[Faith-and-Hope]

That’s awesome @Sophie1 ❣️  One of my kids played cello for 4 years, and I loved it.

[Janiee]

So much talent in here!! I've always loved art, but never found anything I did well in. I love my crocheting, and have found a way to not do the old granny square blankets etc that are more creative.

I'd love to be able to sing or play an instrument, tried a few times with a few different things but alas....I am destined to sing badly in my shower or car and look at sheet music like an alien wrote it lol. 

@Sophie1 @Faith-and-Hope 

[Former-Member]

@Janiee