Elmira Onagh

I never liked art classes. In my class, we were only allowed to draw by copying from a book. It was quite boring and to be honest I was not good at it. After a few tries, I usually ended up placing a piece of paper over the book and tracing the lines for a decent grade. I never thought I would enjoy any form of art and in the culture I grew up, art was not considered something necessary.

The first time, I wanted to learn how to paint was when I was around 8 years old and had accompanied my mother to her art school. The show "Joy of Painting" by Bob Ross (may he rest in peace) was all the rage in my country at the time, and many people had started showing interest in the technique as a hobby. I don't have much memory of that age ( I tend to forget most events unless they are extraordinary to my quite ordinary brain), but to this date, I remember the smell of paint and turpentine and the calm feeling I had while watching my mother and her colleagues trying to figure out how to use different oil paints to create a painting. I enjoy the experience so much that the next summer I insisted to attend an art academy and learn how to paint using oils.

unfortunately, there weren't many schools that accepted children at the time and the on...