I enjoy coming to My Art Space immensely. It must be the idea of a studio in the park, or something about the freedom to do what you really want during an art session. Here, I can paint what I want, at own pace, and in my own style. Through the process, I discovered the traits about myself that I like (or dislike).

For example, when I started I already understood the basics of colours and had a year’s worth of painting experience from before. However I was also very concerned about perfection, of being as close to the original photo as possible, and I was frustrated when I could not achieve the photo-realistic quality of the photo that I was trying to paint. 

Through time, I learnt firstly that maybe hyper-realism isn’t my preferred style, and that each painting is a challenge for me to let go of perfection. When I was young I sought to get “As” in class, but now, there is no one to grade me. So I found learning art was also a way to get out of my old mindset of looking for validation through grades.

I also learnt what I was not comfortable with –  for example, creating abstract art. To me, painting something from emotion or imagination is still something intangible. While others may paint to express a feeling, I originally started painting with the mindset to capture a beautiful scene so each painting is more like “a challenge” to achieve that final result.

Currently, I enjoy painting with the palette knife as it takes away my need for “painting within the lines”, which is liberating and allows me to paint with bolder strokes and speed. Though I still feeling the need for realism which gives me much tension inside, I am challenged to “recreate” a scene in new ways, to deconstruct in order to reconstruct. But all this is still a work in progress, and a total abstract rendition would be part of my art journey’s future goal perhaps!