Finding joy and relieving stress through art

Story by Lori Lewis

I have spent my whole life working in a job that has nothing to do with art but always felt something was missing in my life. As a child I always drew and colored on any surface that was in front of me. As I got older, I became less involved in drawing and painting but still went to museums and collected the artwork of others. About ten years ago, my son became a green beret in the army and while I am truly proud of him, the stress of it is very real. I became depressed and gained weight worrying about the danger he was always in and had to find a better way of dealing with my emotions.

I began to play with oil paint as a way of relieving some of my stress and found I would lose track of time because I was so enthralled with what I was doing. It became a way to escape from my own thoughts. I have learned a lot on my own but really want to take things to a higher level. I want to learn how to design a painting, pick the right approach for it and feel that I am using all the techniques that are available.

I want to feel that I have given myself the best chance I can in this very challenging endeavor and get all the knowledge that I can. I know that visual learning is a great tool and the videos would be so helpful in my artistic journey. The portraits in this course are stunning and I want to be able to achieve a level that makes me proud of myself. I want to feel that I am doing a painting the right way and not just struggling through on my own as I have been doing. I have found such joy in the process of playing, mixing and even smelling he oil paint and I know there is more fun to be had.