"Emerald Lagoon" Print

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 ones that did only taught acrylic painting. Considering the expensive and somehow toxic chemicals used in the process, it made sense for the decision. Finally, one instructor accepted to teach me the basics of oil painting. She was quite a decent teacher but not one for me as in her attempt to please my parents with my progress she would paint most of the pieces I was meant to do in my place not allowing me to experiment, making me feel talentless and that I should leave the art to the other people with better abilities. Throughout the years I never returned to painting but the passion for the oil never completely died in me either. During the covid-19 quarantine, like many others, I fell into a deep depression due to the lack of human interaction. One day as I was aimlessly surfing the online world looking for something to distract myself, I found one of the first episodes of "Joy of Painting" by the good old Bob Ross. As I was watching the episodes, listening to his famous words "Anyone can paint" I started believing in myself again and the flame of passion that was almost burnt out started burning in my heart strongly one more time.