PROBLEM

[Frozzie]

very talented  and i love hearing about all your up to and have been up to over the years...yes thankyou for sharing 

[Cornish Cream]

Absolutely amazing engravings Andie,I can't even draw matchstick men!

[judydawn]

  Can't you CC - that's all I can draw.  The grand-children don't seem to mind though.

Andie, what can I say - you never cease to amaze me.  You certainly have never wasted a minute of your life.  Your postings are like 'show and tell' at school - go to the top of the class 

[CreamPuff63]

they are really lovely Andie, you have really captured the expression in the dog's face

[cookie1]

I admire anyone who has artistic talent.  I was asked politely if I would like to leave 1st year art. I was very, very pleased to.

[timfulford]

I admire anyone who has artistic talent.  I was asked politely if I would like to leave 1st year art. I was very, very pleased to.

No teacher should EVER ask as child to leave their subject! As a teacher of a creative subject I find comments like those mentioned above really shocking, but not uncommon. Everyone can draw, paint, cook and create, its just that some of us are better at it than others, but thats life and human nature. I'm no good at sport, so what, I can cook, draw, paint and be creative.

[andiesenji]

I admire anyone who has artistic talent.  I was asked politely if I would like to leave 1st year art. I was very, very pleased to.

I am always saddened when I hear people say that they were told they did not have talent for drawing or painting and are discouraged from trying it.  I started drawing as a child and I was encouraged even though my early attempts weren't all that great.  I did have some lessons and my teachers mostly taught me about how to actually SEE an object and the negative space around it to develop my drawing skills. The rest of my instruction was mostly about technique: How to handle the various media - how colors were mixed to create other colors and so on. 
I know people who have taken up art studies in later life and found a lot of enjoyment in it.  There are many shortcuts that work well even for people who say they "can't draw a straight line."   One lady, near my age, paints flowers from photos and projects the photos onto her drawing surface.  A lot of people turn their nose up at this but it is not new, Vermeer used it in his paintings although his "camera obscura" was much less technical. 
I think anyone can draw and paint if they learn the tricks of the trade. 

[timfulford]

Totally agree, I taught my mother to draw and paint when she was in her 80's she the took up art classes and got a lot of satisfaction from them. I in turn get a lot of satisfaction from cooking and being in the kitchen which is what I learnt from her as a child.

[Frozzie]

so true andie afterall art is just a form of expression and everyones way of expressing their thoughts and feelings is different    I love looking at my kids drawings and seeing how i can value it by using it somewhere...i know of a mum who started a business like that..taking her kids drawings and the business was to transfer them in print onto cushion covers, quilts, etc etc...there are so many forms and types of art and to alot of people its also a way of freely expressing yourself and very theraputic IMO 

nice story mindnapper..nice that you got to give something back to your mum and she got so much satisfaction out of it

[andiesenji]

When people who have been discouraged about trying art because they are "too old"  I always point out the stories about
Grandma Moses  who didn't start painting until she was in her 70s - had to stop doing embroidery because of arthritis.
She produced a lot of paintings - lived over 100 years and should be an inspiration to anyone who might think they are too old to try something new.

[Cuilidh]

Our business is arts related and we often get "mature students" in (and by mature I mean that this encompasses those from around 40 to 70+) who have always wanted to learn, but there were other demands on their lives, or maybe they had learned at an early age and stopped but now want to start again.  I love working with these people because of their enthusiasm, it is so rewarding for someone on the other side of the counter when your customer gives you such a buzz - my colleagues and I always talk about them with a great deal of happiness when they leave.

These people always get so much more enjoyment, fun and satisfaction from their studies - simply because it is something they WANT to learn and even if they never become "proficient", that doesn't matter, it is all about their own satisfaction in what they are doing.

[cookie1]

Mindmapper1 and andie I truly didn't mind. In fact   was pleased. In those 'olden days' (late 50's) yoou could only take a certain number of subjects for your final exams and I had 1 too many so was happy to abandon art as I didn't want to give up any other subjects.

Mindmapper1 I am a teacher too and of course would never say anything like that to a child now. This was all done nicely and no one was hurt.

[KarenH]

Do you really have it going on max speed for 1 and a half hours frozzie?  I had not heard of the egg shell trick method before, and it sounds like a great idea, but that does seem like a long time to be on full speed 

[Merrilyn]

Looks like a type to me.  I'm sure Fozzie means 1 minute 30 seconds 

[judydawn]

That sounds more like it Merrilyn, Frozzie were you having a senior moment 
There's a discussion on egg shells and cleaning in general here on the forum.