Roberta Anderson

I recently became a member of the South Surrey and White Rock Art Society and through them was able to take a course from artist Richard MacDiarmid. 

I greatly admire his work and was excited to learn from him. Throughout the first lesson, I sat there madly writing notes and feeling like I was in way over my head. Instead of working on my own piece I spent a great deal of time wandering around the class and looking at everyone else’s progress. Big mistake. 

I felt intimidated and overwhelmed with the talent that was in the room. I stalled on my own painting. 

I spent the entire week between session one and two wondering how to get over this feeling. And then it hit me: this is a part of my art journey. I am in these lessons to learn and I don’t have to be bloody Leonardo. 

This attitude adjustment really helped in the next sessions. I was less intimidated because I looked at the other people’s work with an eye to learn not to compare. And because I am rather good at talking to myself, I constantly had silent conversations going in my head reminding me to stick to my newfound attitude.

So above and beyond the incredible amount of information I took in from Richard, I learned a valuable lesson. Baby steps are okay. This is my art learning journey not someone else’s.

Keep up the baby steps everyone,

Roberta