Last year I was shopping in the wonderful Whistle Emporium with my young adult daughter. We browsed among the million wonderful objects there, and she bought the book “Watercolor in Nature” by Rosalie Haizlett.
As we were enjoying a lovely lunch at the Village Restaurant, I thumbed through her purchase and eyed her new watercolor set. Perhaps it was the lovely way the Lamoille River runs alongside the restaurant, or the particular slant of the light that day in downtown Hardwick, but a creative seed was planted in me that day.
I’m one of those people who says “I can’t” when it comes to art; can’t draw, can’t write poetry, can’t imagine how to beautify a space. Yet, with the help of Rosalie’s gentle book, I started to draw and paint. The subjects were very tiny things, as were the canvasses. A daisy, a frog, a fiddlehead fern, all broken down into even smaller shapes and shades and layers of color. It was fun and made me see things more vividly in my everyday life. Walking the dog became an adventure. I started sending original cards to friends and visiting the art store in Montpelier. I was starting to say “I can!”
Then I tried a landscape. Oh dear. It was a simple scene of a view overlooking a lake to some rolling mountains beyond.It seemed simple until I tried to render it on my canvas. I just couldn’t capture it.
I didn’t have the knowledge or the tools to paint Or draw landscapes, but I let myself feel inadequate rather than curious. That’s not exactly a recipe for creativity.
How often do we stop ourselves in life because we say “I can’t,” instead of reaching for the resources we need?
After a long pause in my budding life as a watercolor artist, I now own a new book: “Stunning Watercolor Seascapes” by Kolbie Blume. It is all about how to paint water: rivers, oceans, lakes and more.
With Kolbie’s kind tutelage, I’m beginning to feel like I can again; ready to reach for a brush and start to play again as I translate the beauty I see into art.
During this season of cold and darkness, may we slow down just a little in our striving, and allow ourselves to explore freely on tiny canvases or in small gestures of love.
Try a new recipe or check out a book on something you know nothing about. Take up the ukulele or get out on snowshoes on a frozen lake to see what might open in your soul. Find new ways to encounter the beauty of life around you and to say “I can.”There are so many ways we shut ourselves down, yet new possibilities abound.
Reverend Sarah Lammert is the founder of Shared Vision Consulting in Vermont and works as the Federal Chaplaincies Endorser for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
